A Global Health Curriculum at King Saud University Medical College- a Needs Assessment

Abstract

Background: Global Health is an emerging field in medicine that has been introduced in many medical colleges across the world but still does not exist in Saudi Arabia’s undergraduate medical education curricula. Objective: To carry out a needs assessment that evaluates students’ and faculty’s perceptions about introducing a Global Health Curriculum at King Saud Medical College in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: This paper is a cross-sectional mixed methods study that took place at King Saud University and involved a student survey (n=600) and 10 faculty interviews. A 17 item survey was emailed to 4th and 5th year medical students. Faculty interviews, consisting of 4 open-ended questions, were conducted electronically. Faculty members belonged to the Medical Education and Community Medicine departments. The survey results were used to make a connection with the qualitative data. Results: 253/600 students completed the survey (42% response rate). 83% (210) of the students endorsed the introduction of a Global Health course while 17% (43) said they didn’t. Half of the students 51% (129) endorsed the course as an elective, and 32% (81) as a compulsory course. The faculty encouraged the introduction of a global health curriculum; acknowledging its benefits and stating the barriers that need to be overcome. Conclusion: Students at King Saud Medical College are interested in a Global Health curriculum. By learning from other universities who have preceded us in this field, faculty noted the benefits of such a curriculum a expressed interest in introducing it.