Introduction: Clinical educators around the globe agreed that an optimal educational climate is a vital aspect for effective learning to take place. This study was conducted to evaluate the perceptions of graduates toward the quality of clinical education climate in USM medical school. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on a cohort of USM medical graduates. Questionnaires were administered to the graduates to measure their perception on four aspects of clinical education climate that include structure of clinical rotation, clinical teaching and learning activities, quality of lecturers and end clinical rotation assessment across 13 clinical rotations. The graduates were requested to respond to seven-Likert scale ranging from 1(poor) to 7(excellent). Scores of equal to or more than 5 was considered as positive areas, scores of between 4 and 5 were considered as areas for improvement, and scores less than 4 were considered as areas of concern. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 20. Results: A total of 105 (96.3%) graduates responded to the questionnaire. Results showed only the paediatric rotation obtained positive ratings on all areas of the clinical rotation structure. With regards to teaching and learning activities, the graduates scored most of the clinical rotations between 4 and 5. With regards to the quality of lecturers, most of the clinical rotations obtained score more than 5. Most of the areas related to the end-of-assessment of clinical rotation obtained score more than 5 except for the feedback adequacy, indicating inadequacy of feedback they received. Conclusion: USM medical graduates positively perceived the quality of lecturers during clinical training, however several areas of clinical education related to clinical rotation structure, clinical teaching and learning activities, and feedback practice were perceived by them as areas for improvement. Medical schools should introduce strategic measures to address the concerns raised by the graduates to ensure the best clinical learning experience are provided to the current and future medical students.
One of the challenges in mentoring relationships is to understand the real issues faced by the mentees. A mechanism has been established to offer a credible mentoring inventory. The aim of the study was to determine the construct validity and reliability index of the Universiti Sains Malaysia Mentoring Inventory (USM-MT-i) among early phase medical students in a Malaysian public medical school. A cross-sectional study was conducted in June 2017 among 208 early phase of the medical students of School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia. USM-MT-i is a self-administered inventory and was established based on the information gained from the mentors and mentees. The prevalidated inventory entailed 44 primary items. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and Cronbach’s alpha reliability analysis were utilised to determine the construct validity and reliability of such inventory. The result revealed three potential constructs with 39 items extracted from the USMMT- i; academic leadership (19 items), communication skills (12 items) and examination competence (8 items) with factor loading ranges from 0.50–0.77, 0.51–0.80 and 0.65–0.87, respectively. Internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) for each domain were 0.95, 0.93 and 0.92, respectively. The overall Cronbach’s alpha was 0.96. The present study promoted that the three factors with 39 items of the USM-MT-i has a good validity and reliability value to survey for mentoring needs among medical students in their early phase.
Educational environment is an important determinant of medical students’ behaviour. It impacts their
academic performance, motivation, and psychological well-being. Quantitative evidence have shown
that there is a decrease in the positive perception of clinical medical students towards the educational
environment. The primary focus on this study was to explore the clinical education environment
through the lived experience of clinical medical students during medical training. Using hermeneutic
phenomenology we aimed to interpret participants’ experience of personal clinical learning journey
through free text input. Thematic analysis was performed to analyse the written texts. Various
measures were taken to enhance the trustworthiness of the findings. A total of 154 (74.8%) fourth year
students and 144 (74.6%) final year students participated in the study. We identified six overarching
themes of education environment in clinical setting that are personal development, teaching and
learning, assessment for learning, facility, support and nurturing curriculum. The overlapping
relationship of the themes is illustrated in the Clinical Education Environment Framework. While
many themes were consistent with existing framework, our findings also proposed assessment as an
important component to influence perception on education environment. The themes in this study
finding conform to the definition of education environment which covers physical, social, and
psychological aspects of students learning. Medical schools should take active measures to incorporate
a nurturing education environment especially in clinical year where students struggle with the hidden
curriculum.