DOHA: In a new initiative, medical students from Qatar University College of Medicine (QU-CMED) are getting early exposure to clinical environment at several primary health centres in the country.
Forty-nine medical students have begun their clinical placements this Fall in six primary health care centres. The placements for students from the second to the fourth year of the medical programme will mostly take place in Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) centres, while clinical training for the fourth year students will involve secondary and tertiary care and will take place mostly at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) hospitals.
The participating primary health centres include West Bay Primary Healthcare Centre, Omar Bin Khattab Health Centre, Al Daayen Health Centre, Leabaib Health Centre, Umm Ghwailina Health Centre and Al Gharrafa Health Centre.
According to CMED Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Prof Hossam Hamdy, such early exposure is not common. “Medical students normally have their first clinical contact in the third year. Before that, most of their learning is based on theoretical knowledge. However, evidence shows that early exposure to the clinical setting provides students not only with increased confidence and familiarity in communicating effectively with patients, but also with more solid knowledge attainment skills that are rooted in experiential learning and based on a patient-centered approach,” said Hamdy.
“Learning from patients is highly valued by medical students”, commented Prof Alison Carr, CMED Head of Clinical Education and Professor, leading the clinical placement initiative.
From the beginning, students attend and become familiar with primary health centres, observing from family physicians and their health care teams how care is provided to patients. Students learn effectively from “patient stories”, where patients are able to bring clinical learning to students by telling them about their medical problems and their personal experiences in health care.
“These opportunities help the students make sense of the knowledge they have acquired from studying at the university, allowing them to combine theoretical and experiential learning and to develop their knowledge in a more contextualised way,” said Alison Carr.
Prof Carr said: “This population health perspective familiarises students with how primary care centres provide care for patients, and helps them develop a deeper understanding of the structure of the health care system from primary to secondary and tertiary care.”
The Head of Clinical Training & Consultant Family Medicine at PHCC Dr Noora Al Mutawa said: “By providing support to second-year medical students at Qatar University through clinical placements, PHCC contributes to building their insight and knowledge about population health in Qatar. Through the guided professional expertise of family physicians in primary care clinical placements, students will be exposed to the ideal practical environment where they can integrate academic knowledge and theory into practice. This will enhance the problem-based learning approach of year 2 curriculum. Furthermore, family physicians will help to facilitate the experiential learning sessions.”
“During these sessions, the students will reflect on their experiences in the clinical placements and discuss the health care profession, ethical dilemmas, determine gaps in their knowledge and finally develop an action plan for learning and improvement guided by their faculty. We, at Primary Health Care Corporation, are excited to work with medical students from CMED and develop them to be our future colleagues,” she added.
