Abstract
Objectives: The aims of this study were to evaluate patient’s satisfaction regarding the orthodontic treatment
provided by the Faculty of Dentistry Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and to determine the factors that
affected their satisfaction level.
Methods: : A cross-sectional study was conducted among the patients treated with full fixed appliances in the
faculty’s orthodontic clinic using a validated questionnaire.
Results: : The final sample consisted of 105 subjects (response rate 76%) which comprises of 26 males and 79
females were chose with 97% of the respondents are Malay. Most subjects had orthodontic treatment duration
of more than 1.5 years (100%) and were still wearing fixed appliances (89%). Items included in the
questionnaire: reasons for seeking orthodontic treatment, questions relevant to satisfaction with orthodontic
treatment, doctor-patient relationship and pain experience during orthodontic treatment. Concerning the doctor
patient relationship, 91% of the respondents were contented with their orthodontist. Respondents answered
‘Yes’ to the treatment plan explained prior to the procedure (91.4%), questions answered promptly (94.3%),
gentleness of the orthodontist (91.4%) and dental assistant (88.6%), orthodontist honesty about treatment
duration (90.5%) and cost (97.1%), and recommendation to others (90.5%).
Conclusion: Generally, patients who had received orthodontic treatment from the orthodontic clinic in Faculty
of Dentistry UiTM were satisfied with the overall treatment outcomes. However, there were still some aspects of
the service that can be improved in the future in order to provide a better healthcare services specifically in
orthodontic treatment.
Objectives: To assess pattern of toothpaste usage among young children under 6 years old.
Materials and methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out at the Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Parents of children below 6 years old were involved. 200 questionnaires were distributed and 136 (68%) were returned for analysis. The questionnaire covered the following parameters: type, frequency, and quantity of toothpaste usage among children, level of parental knowledge of fluoride concentration in toothpaste and selection criteria of suitable toothpaste for their children.
Results: Majority of the respondents (83.1%) said they used children’s toothpaste to brush their child’s teeth and 62.5 % of them knew that the toothpaste used had fluoride in it. Slightly more than half of the respondents (53.7%) said they started brushing their child’s teeth one year after eruption of the first tooth. Almost an equal proportion of the respondents reported using toothpaste twice daily (50.7%) and only 44.1% of them supervised their children’s brushing. Respondents generally used more than a pea-sized toothpaste quantity (53.6%). Taste, fluoride concentration and brand of the toothpaste appeared to be the main criteria that influenced the selection of the toothpaste (55.9%). Income and educational levels of the respondents did not influence the type of toothpaste used.
Conclusion: These findings indicated that although parents were brushing their childrens’ teeth with children toothpaste, they were still unaware of the proper usage and importance of fluoridated toothpaste.
Introduction: Each year, more than 20 million people are injured and 1.17 million are killed due to road
traffi c accidents. Developing countries account for over 85% of the deaths, and close to 90% of the disability caused by road traffi c crashes worldwide. The objectives of this study were to determine the knowledge, attitudes and practice and the factors infl uencing university students in Malaysia concerning road traffic accident. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted among the students of Management and Science University, Malaysia. The questionnaire was distributed randomly to the students of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 13, T-test and ANOVA. Results: The total number of 109 students with the mean age of 20.94±1.89 years participated in this study. Approximately 39 (35.7%) of the participant had been involved in one or more than one road traffi c accident. About 93.6% of them were very strongly/strongly convinced of seat belts importance. Multivariate analysis using the multiple linear regression method showed that age and attitude were signifi cantly associated with the exposure to the accident. Conclusion: The study participants had moderate knowledge about road traffic regulations and most of them mentioned that high speed, drivers’ lack of awareness about traffi c regulation and laws, and drivers’ non-compliance with traffi c rules and regulation were the most important cause of road traffic accidents. Almost all students were very strongly/strongly convinced of seatbelts importance. Age and attitude were signifi cantly associated with the exposure to the accident.
Literature data on association between physical activity (PA) and health related quality of life (HRQoL) in non-clinical
adults population are still limited. Thereby, the objective of this study was to evaluate the association between PA and
HRQoL among the non-academic staff serving the Faculty of Health Sciences (FSK), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM),
Kuala Lumpur (KL). In this cross sectional study, 105 non-academic staffs aged between 18 to 60 years were recruited.
Self-administered questionnaires (Malay version of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and World Health
Organisation Quality of Life-Brief Version) were administered among the participants. Mann Whitney test and Spearman’s
rho correlation were employed for the statistical analysis using SPSS version 22.0 Majority of participants (72.4%)
demonstrated high PA scores of ≥ 3000 MET-minutes/week. PA scores between genders was not statistically significant
(p = 0.137). However, total PA score of support staffs (median = 9039.0, IQR = 15811.00) was significantly higher compared
to staffs in management and professional group (median = 4329.0, IQR = 4189.00). The mean(SD) self-perceived HRQoL
score was 3.4 (0.76). There were no significant correlation between PA and all domains of HRQoL such as physical health,
psychological, social relationship and environmental domains (Correlation coefficient, ρ = -0.108, 0.003, -0.023, 0.026
respectively) with p = 0.273, 0.978, 0.818, 0.794 respectively. Majority of non-academic staffs of FSK, UKM engaged in
high physical activity. The PA levels of support staffs were significantly higher than management and professional staffs.
However, there was no statistically significant correlation observed between PA and domains of HRQoL.
Conference abstracts: Malaysia in affiliation
(1). PO-211. AGE-SPECIFIC STRESS-MODULATED
CHANGES OF SPLENIC IMMUNOARCHITECTURE
IN THE GROWING BODY. Marina Yurievna Kapitonova, Syed Baharom Syed Ahmad Fuad, Flossie Jayakaran; Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia
[email protected] (2). PO-213. A DETAILED OSTEOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE ANOMALOUS GROOVES NEAR THE
MASTOID NOTCH OF THE SKULL. ISrijit Das, 2Normadiah Kassim, lAzian Latiff, IFarihah Suhaimi, INorzana Ghafar, lKhin Pa Pa Hlaing, lIsraa Maatoq, IFaizah Othman; I Department of Anatomy, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 2 Department of Anatomy, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. das_sri [email protected] (3). PO-21S. FIRST LUMBRICAL MUSCLE OF THE
PALM: A DETAILED ANATOMICAL STUDY WITH
CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS. Srijit Das, Azian Latiff, Parihah Suhaimi, Norzana Ghafar, Khin Pa Pa Hlaing, Israa Maatoq, Paizah Othman; Department of Anatomy, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. [email protected] (4). PO-336. IMPROVEMENT IN EXPERIMENTALLY
INDUCED INFRACTED CARDIAC FUNCTION
FOLLOWING TRANSPLANTATION OF HUMAN
UMBILICAL CORD MATRIX-DERIVED
MESENCHYMAL CELLS. lSeyed Noureddin Nematollahi-Mahani, lMastafa Latifpour, 2Masood Deilami, 3Behzad Soroure-Azimzadeh, lSeyed
Hasan Eftekharvaghefi, 4Fatemeh Nabipour, 5Hamid
Najafipour, 6Nouzar Nakhaee, 7Mohammad Yaghoobi, 8Rana Eftekharvaghefi, 9Parvin Salehinejad, IOHasan Azizi; 1 Department of Anatomy, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; 2 Department of Cardiosurgery, Hazrat-e Zahra Hospital, Kerman, Iran; 3 Department of Cardiology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; 4 Department of Pathology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; 5 Department of Physiology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; 6 Department of Neuroscience Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; 7 Department
of Biotechnology, Research Institute of Environmental Science, International Center for Science, High Technology & Environmental Science, Kerman, Iran; 8 Students Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran; 9 Institute of Bioscience, University Putra Malaysia,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; 10 Department of Stem Cell, Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute, ACECR, Tehran, Iran. [email protected] (5).
Background: The Medical Faculty of the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) runs an undergraduate medical programme which is a combination of the traditional and the newer trends of medical curriculum. The IIUM curriculum in Phase I (Years 1, 2: preclinical) is integrated organ system based, with lectures being the main method of curriculum delivery and also incorporating problem-based learning (PBL) as one of the teaching-learning approaches. Methods: The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of PBL teaching-learning method in IIUM in achieving the aims of the medical school as viewed by the students. A total of 287 students from Phase I and Phase II (Year 3: clinical) participated in this study at the end of academic session 2006/2007. The questionnaires distributed consisted of 33 items with four different aspects of PBL being evaluated namely; i) PBL objectives, ii) assessment of performance of the facilitators, iii) assessment of the PBL packages and iv) preferred teaching-learning approach. Results: An average of 86.4 % of students agreed that PBL sessions achieved its aims of preparing students for professional training in the clinical years. Also approximately 80% of students felt that the facilitators fulfilled their roles as PBL tutors. Students were generally satisfied with the PBL packages prepared. However about 50% of Year 2 students did not look forward to PBL sessions and only about 20% of preclinical students wanted more PBL sessions to be scheduled. This latter finding differed as 60% of the clinical (Year 3) students wanted more PBL sessions to be implemented. A significant proportion of the students also believed that they needed some prior information about the PBL case in question in order to generate lively exchange of ideas in the first sessions. Preclinical students preferred lectured-based approach as compared to PBL in contrast to the clinical (Year 3) students of whom 57% (62) preferred the PBL teaching-learning approach. Nearly 80% of the Year 3 students found the exposure to PBL sessions during their preclinical years beneficial during the clinical year. Discussion: Although our findings supported the effectiveness of PBL as one of the teaching-learning approaches (as perceived by our students) there are a few areas of concern. These include believing that a prior knowledge of the topic in question is needed to generate a lively discussion; the group not being motivated; the group members confining themselves to individual assignments only; PBL not being supportive of on-going self- assessment; the consequence of a facilitator being too dominant; and cases constructed do not reflect real clinical scenarios. Despite agreeing to its effectiveness preclinical students still preferred lecture-based approach to the PBL as they are more confident with the knowledge as obtained through the former learning modality. Conclusion: PBL is an effective learning strategy and it contributes to the teaching-learning process of IIUM undergraduate preclinical medical programme which implements a non-Problem Based Curriculum. We are of the opinion that a combination of lecture sessions and PBL best suit the IIUM medical students.
Background: Competence-based curriculum has become the need of medical education to meet the objectives of institutions aiming to produce skilled physicians. To achieve the optimal competence and performance of graduates a number of traditional evaluation exercises have been practiced. Some of these e.g. OSCE although meet the acceptable standard of reliability and validity is the assessment done in a controlled environment. This leaves the room for performance-based assessment in real clinical situation such as mini clinical evaluation exercise (Mini-CEX). To practice and meet the challenges of Mini-CEX it is vital to undertake faculty development program with a comprehensively chalked down Mini-CEX protocol and its objectives to achieve the intended outcome. Objective: To undertake faculty development on Mini-CEX for its feasibility and acceptability as a method of formative assessment to evaluate the clinical competence of trainees in postgraduate program of Otolaryngology and Head-Neck Surgery. Method: 25 trainees from the four classes of master of surgery program of 2009 in Otolaryngology and Head-Neck Surgery (ORL-HNS) undertook Mini-CEX encounters and assessed by 9 supervisors in a 12-week period of study. Faculty development program was carried out through prior lectures deliberating on background, concept and procedure of Mini-CEX followed by demonstrations using video clip of Mini-CEX encounter recorded in own clinical environment. Students were also exposed to similar settings to take up the Mini-CEX encounter without any hesitation. Trainees were assessed in outpatient clinical setting. Program was evaluated for its feasibility and acceptability with respect to patient’s factors, clinical attributes, supervisor and trainee’s performance and their reported level of satisfaction.
Result: Faculty development and trainees orientation in Min-CEX was achieved as feasible and acceptable. Higher rating of satisfaction was reported by majority assessors and trainees as they found Mini-CEX acceptable for formative assessment. Among clinical skills highest rating was received in physical examination and lowest rating in therapeutic skills. Conclusion: A motivated faculty and organized approach towards a comprehensive knowledge on Mini-CEX for its background communication, demonstration of procedure and method to complete the rating forms is the useful guide to adopt Mini-CEX. The faculty and trainees in department of ORL-HNS found Mini-CEX as feasible and acceptable assessment tool to monitor educational activity of postgraduate program through performance-based evaluation in a real clinical situation.
Background: In order to achieve the desired performance of graduates a number of traditional evaluation exercises have been practiced to assess their competence as medical students. Many of these assessments are done in a controlled environment and mostly reflect on tests of competence than performance. Mini-CEX or direct observed procedural skills (DOPS) are the real performance-based assessment of clinical skills. Increased opportunity for observation and just-in-time feedback from the role model superiors produce a positive educational impact on students learning. This also provides trainees with formative assessment to monitor their learning objectives. However, to implement assessment strategies with Mini-CEX or DOPS needs to develop institution’s clear policy for a different teaching and learning culture of workplace based assessment. It also needs to develop user friendly rating form, checklist, elaboration of clinical competence and its attributes and procedural guidelines for practice. A precise role of these tools in the assessment of postgraduate program must be established before practicing them to evaluate and monitor trainee’s progress.
Objective: To determine DOPS for its acceptability and feasibility as a method of formative assessment of clinical skills in postgraduate program of Otolaryngology and Head-Neck Surgery.
Method: A total of 25 trainees were assessed for DOPS by 8 supervisors in this 12-weeks pilot study. A faculty development program for faculty members and trainees was run for DOPS. Trainees were advised to undertake at least one DOPS encounter out of 42 shortlisted procedures. Assessors were asked to mark trainees by completing a rating form using a checklist developed for each procedure. Trainees and assessors were asked to endorse their opinion on feasibility and acceptance of DOPS for practice of formative assessment in future. Data was analyzed to determine feasibility and acceptability of DOPS in assessment program. Result: Faculty development and trainees orientation in DOPS were found satisfactory for its acceptance and feasible for its practice. Trainees were mostly assessed in outpatient clinical setting. Majority reported higher rating of satisfaction by assessors and trainees. Among clinical skills higher rating was received in procedural skills performed by the senior trainees. Conclusion: DOPS was found feasible for practice of formative assessment of trainees in postgraduate program of Otolaryngology and Head-Neck Surgery in School of Medical Sciences (SMS) at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). It was well accepted by the trainees to help monitor their quality of procedural skills as self-directed learning.
The aim of this retrospective study was to study the clinical patterns of oro-facial infections presented and their management (or trends of management) at the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Dental Faculty, University of Malaya. These included the predisposing factors, presentations and management. This study reviewed the oro-facial infection cases over 15 years. The data was obtained from case note reviews of patients using specially designed proforma. A total number of 409 samples were included in this study. Majority of the patients were generally healthy with about 6.6% having diabetes mellitus. The common presentations were pain (47.4%), pus discharges (16.9%) and limitation of mouth opening (12.5%). The major site was in the submandibular region (18.9%) followed by cheek (13.2%). Most of the infections were from odontogenic source (63.2%). Other sources includes cysts (15.4%) and tumours (6.7%). Incision and drainage were the treatment of choice performed on 57.55% of patients. Monoantimicrobial therapy was the treatment instituted in 20.8% of cases.
The aim of this study was to assess the wear of tungsten carbide burs and round rotary diamond instruments through measurements of rake angle and visual observations respectively under a field emission scanning electron microscope. Sixty short and long head pear-shaped tungsten carbide burs and 18 round rotary diamond instruments that had been used to complete < 5, > 5 and > 10 cavity preparations (n=10/group) were selected from the 3rd and 4th year dental students, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya. There were two control groups consisting of long and short tungsten carbide burs of ten each. Two-way ANOVA was used to analyse the rake angle data. The data from the two control groups were collectively analysed following multiple paired t-test (p>.05) which showed no significant difference between the two types of tungsten carbide bur (short and long head). The mean rake angle of the control group was significantly higher (p < .05) compared to the < 5, > 5 and > 10 cavity preparation groups. The rake angle of the > 10 cavity preparation group was significantly lower than the other two test groups (p < .05). Round rotary diamond instruments in the < 5 cavity preparation group showed intact diamond particles with distinct cutting facets comparable to the control group. However, diamonds instruments in the > 5 and > 10 cavity preparation groups showed blunt diamond particles. In conclusion, wear of tungsten carbide burs and round rotary diamond instruments were evident after repeated use. Wear was more pronounced when instruments were used to prepare more than ten cavities.
Island health differs from other health care systems, particularly in that there are limited resources and referral faculties available. With globalisation and climate change, island populations have become increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and global pandemics. This study will identify, explore, compare and report on island health issues facing in the western Pacific, before making appropriate recommendations. A review of selected health indicators in Pacific islands was collected from the World Health Organization (WHO) and other publicly available resources. In the Pacific region, 15 islands saw lower health expenditure (
Objectives: This paper reports the outcome of Session With Carer, one of the activities in the Year 4 Personal and Professional Development (PPD) module in the new integrated curriculum of the Undergraduate Medical Programme at the Faculty of Medicine,
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). Methods: This activity involves groups of 14 – 15 students sitting in with family members of individuals with mental illness. The session starts with the carer giving his or her perspective of patient’s care and the challenges involved. This is followed by a question and answer session. Finally, the carer provides a written feedback by way of scoring certain items as well as brief comments. After the session, each student is required to prepare an individual report in the form of reflective writing. Results: Out of a total of 224 students, the reflections of 126 students were reviewed to assess what they had learnt from the Session With Carer. Among the more significant findings were: 100% learnt about the various challenges faced by carers. 31.7% learnt the importance of
faith/spirituality of the carer in caring for a mentally ill family member. 29.4% learnt the importance of family and others’ support. An equal number, that is, 26.2% learnt that it helps for the carer to have good mental health and a positive attitude, as well as good
knowledge of the illness. Those who became aware of the benefits of the carer having patience and determination made up 23.8% of the total reflections reviewed. Conclusion: The findings show that the Session With Carer is very educational, and helps create more
awareness of the importance of the carer’s role in patient management and support. In other words, carers can act as teachers in creating more public awareness about mental illness and
ultimately, help in gradually removing the stigma associated with mental illness. Therefore, carers should be utilized for this purpose.
Mental health is a growing concern in the field of occupational health globally due to its social, health, and economic implications on the individual and the community at large. As universities in Malaysia are advancing towards becoming world-class research universities, academicians are now faced with more pressures, making them more vulnerable to burnout. A cross sectional study was conducted among 194 randomly sampled academicians from a faculty of a public university. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire to assess the sociodemographic characteristics, occupational characteristics and burnout. Analysis was done using SPSS version 21. The response rate was 87.1%. The overall prevalence of burnout was 10.7% with significant associations between gender (χ2 = 4.61; p = 0.03), teaching experience (χ2 = 0.83; p = 0.02), job satisfaction (χ2 = 11.33; p = 0.001). Female academicians have a higher prevalence of burnout (14.3%). Academicians who have fewer years of teaching experience (
The significance of learning research methodology and performing research has been accepted by various medical schools in Malaysia as well as in other countries. The aim of integrating research into medical curriculum is to inculcate the research culture and form part of the evidence-based practice among medical professionals. Hence, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak has incorporated the research component into the preclinical year of the medical curriculum. A survey was conducted to gauge the second year medical students' level of knowledge of research process at the end of the course using a set of questionnaires. Seventy nine of second year medical students participated in the study. The outcome of the study shows significant improvement in the students’ knowledge on research components after completing the one year course (p
Burnout can be conceptualized in three different aspects consisting of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment. It can lead to increment of the turnover rate, absenteeism and low organizational commitment. Stress and job dissatisfaction will lead to psychological distress and burnout. Nurses are one in the health care profession that is susceptible to burnout because they are dealing with patient management and service care delivery. The aim of this study is to determine whether nurses working in Clinical Training Centre (CTC), Faculty of Medicine, University Teknologi MARA (UiTM) are experiencing burnout. A descriptive study design with convenient sampling technique using self-reported questionnaires adapted from Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was conducted involving 120 of nurses in CTC. High levels of burnout were identified in 83.3% of the respondent in the area of depersonalization and 42.5% of the respondent in the area of reduced personal achievement. Marital status was significantly associated with emotional exhaustion (p
To explore the association between social
support and stress levels in preclinical and clinical dental
students in Malaysia. Method: A cross sectional survey
of dental undergraduate students was conducted at the
Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia.
Stress was measured using the Dental Environment Stress
(DES) questionnaire. A DES-32 item was used to measure
stress for the clinical students and DES-16 item for the
preclinical students. Four questions were used to measure
social support. The total stress scores were standardized
for comparison purposes. Results: A total of 357 (79.7%)
preclinical and 417 (71.8%) clinical undergraduate dental
students responded to the questionnaires. The clinical
students experienced higher stress [mean standardized
DES score = 72.63, SD = 10.64] than preclinical students
[mean standardized DES score = 70.19, SD=12.01]. The
two most stressful items reported by preclinical students
were “fear of failing” and “examination and grades”.
Among clinical students, the two most stressful items related
to academic were “completing course requirement” and
“fear of failing course” and items related to clinical session
were “fear of being barred due to the clinical schedule”
and “patients late or absent”. Multiple regression analyses
revealed that low stress levels among preclinical students
were significantly associated to a lot of contact with
students of the same course. Conclusion: To some extent,
social support does play a role in explaining differences in
perceived stress, in particular among preclinical students.
Introduction: Challenge arises for medical undergraduates as the subject of medicine is intricate and extensive. Although students come from the same pool of excellent academic background, the medical undergraduates are still prone to failure in exams, resulting in them repeating the year of study or even having the thought of changing to other courses. In order to cope with the programme, students may adopt learning approaches that would help them to go through the programme. Therefore, it would be interesting to explore the learning approaches of medical students in Universiti Putra Malaysia. Methods: The purposes of this study were to determine the learning approach of medical undergraduates of Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia (FMHS, UPM) together with its associated factors, which were socio-demographic characteristics and learning environment. This research was a cross-sectional study where the sample size calculated was 554. Self-administered questionnaires were given to the respondents chosen by simple random sampling. The socio-demographic characteristics were analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage. Chi-square test was used to analyse the association between the variables. Results: The response rate was 83% (460 respondents agreed to participate). The majority of the respondents were females (73.7%), Malay (67%), and in their clinical years of study (58.7%). Overall, most students preferred deep approach (DA) of learning (49.6%), followed by strategic approach (29.1%) and surface apathetic approach (21.3%) of learning. There were statistically significant associations between learning approach and gender (p=0.005), as well as between learning approach and year of study (p=0.037). Conclusion: Our study showed an association between learning approaches and year of study and gender. DA of learning was the preferred learning approach in medical students at FMHS, UPM. This approach of learning, where students learn to understand the subject matter, may result in students become effective learners. Their understanding about the subject matter will be applicable to their clinical practice in the future.
This study was to evaluate the microbial contamination level in direct water supply at the Polyclinic, Faculty of Dentistry, USIM, Malaysia. Water samples were collected randomly from water supplied via the cup filler outlet of 20 dental units and 20 side water taps at Level 16 and 17 of Polyclinic, Faculty of Dentistry, USIM. All the samples were placed and spread evenly on the surface of prepared agar media (the nutrient agar) using the spread technique. Each sample consists of 0.5 mL water. The microbial count was done using a magnifying glass and the total number of bacteria concentration was reported as colony forming unit in 1 mL of water (cfu/mL). In this study water from an aquarium was used as positive control with 220 cfu/mL, while the distilled water taken from the CSSD was used as negative control with no colony of microorganism. The study demonstrated that there were low contamination before the treatment that was beginning of the session in water supplied via the cup filler outlet and side water tap from the sink with 2 cfu/mL. However, two cup fillers water and one side water taps from Polyclinic level 17 showed a slightly higher bacterial colonies with 4 cfu/mL and 6 cfu/mL of microbes. At the end of the session, result showed that higher bacterial count from Polyclinic level 17 than Polyclinic level 16 with the highest reading of 40 cfu/mL. The findings were considered low and the water was safe for the dental procedures. The quality of water supplied at the Faculty of Dentistry, USIM was within the limits recommended by the American Dental Association, i.e. bacterial loads of not more than 200 cfu/mL for dental procedures.
Objective. To determine the perceptions of lecturers toward case-based learning (CBL) and to elicit their feedback and opinions regarding the design of CBL sessions within the pharmacy curricula. Methods. One-on-one interviews were conducted with 10 academic staff members involved in teaching an undergraduate Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm) program. All sessions were audio-recorded and field notes were compiled. The recordings were transcribed, and thematic analysis of responses was performed. Results. Four key themes were identified: perceived benefits of CBL, challenges in implementing CBL within the curricula, characteristics of effective and engaging CBL, and relevance and implementation of CBL within the curriculum. Some of the specific benefits of CBL identified by participants included the applicability of knowledge learned to students' future role as pharmacists. Participants also identified challenges such as the design of CBL cases and course time constraints. Respondents also emphasized the need for more training for facilitators in how to design cases and facilitate sessions. Conclusion. While participants identified numerous benefits of CBL, they also identified challenges to implementing this learning method within the pharmacy school curriculum. Paying careful attention to selecting facilitators and providing appropriate facilitator training, in terms of facilitation and case design, is paramount in effectively implementing CBL sessions.