Students' perceptions about the family medicine course in Qassim, Saudi Arabia

This study explores students' perceptions and attitudes regarding educational methodology, content and assessment methods in the Family Medicine (FM) Course at Qassim University College of Medicine (QUCOM) with a view to build innovations and improvements on its findings.

Three batches of undergraduate medical students attending FM Course - 2011/12 participated in a cross-sectional questionnaire-based study. Data collected through anonymous self-administered questionnaires were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).

Participation rate was quite high; of the 79 students constituting the course cohort, 68 (86%) responded. Students' perceived problem-based learning (PBL) tutorials positively while both male and female students rated classroom lectures negatively. Primary health care training activities and evidence-based medicine received high positive scores. Male students assigned high positive scores to consultation skills and breaking bad news (BBN) modules, and to a lesser extent the medical audit module. By contrast, female students rated them negatively and gave significantly lower scores. These were the only areas indicating significant differences between opinions of male and female students.

Although the degree of students' satisfaction with the different learning activities varied, students felt that having a variety of learning and teaching experiences was more appropriate.