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First year medical students' perceptions of the impact of wearing scrubs on professional identity: a narrative analysis in the United Arab Emirates.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVES:Medical school serves as a critical developmental period for future physicians, during which students begin to form a professional identity. Just as personal appearance, particularly clothing, is an important external expression of one's personal identity, 'uniforms' in healthcare, including white coats and scrubs, symbolise status and a group identity. There are, however, limited studies on the impact of physician attire on medical students' formation of professional identity. Accordingly, through qualitative analysis of written narratives, we sought to analyse medical students' experiences of wearing professional physician attire, namely scrubs, and how the uniform impacted their confidence level, performance and behaviours, as well as their identity as future physicians. DESIGN:Qualitative analysis of medical student's written narratives. SETTING:Khalifa University College of Medicine and Health Sciences (KU CMHS) is a new medical school in the United Arab Emirates, with an inaugural class of 30 students admitted in August 2019. It is the only medical school in the city of Abu Dhabi, and the only school in the country that follows a postgraduate medical curriculum. PARTICIPANTS:All first year medical students at KU CMHS were purposively sampled. METHODS:Students completed a voluntary online anonymous questionnaire. We employed a social identity approach to data analysis. Thematic content analysis was conducted on their narratives to identify themes. RESULTS:We identified three major themes, namely (1) emotions, (2) logistics and (3) interpersonal relationships. CONCLUSIONS:Medical students form early perceptions regarding physician attire and its impact on their professional identity. Engaging in conversations regarding professional attire with educators or mentors could provide an important opportunity for students to discuss and explore professional identity early in training.

SUBMITTER: Sorrell S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7640520 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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First year medical students' perceptions of the impact of wearing scrubs on professional identity: a narrative analysis in the United Arab Emirates.

Sorrell Sara S Ibrahim Halah H

BMJ open 20201103 11

<h4>Objectives</h4>Medical school serves as a critical developmental period for future physicians, during which students begin to form a professional identity. Just as personal appearance, particularly clothing, is an important external expression of one's personal identity, 'uniforms' in healthcare, including white coats and scrubs, symbolise status and a group identity. There are, however, limited studies on the impact of physician attire on medical students' formation of professional identity ...[more]

PMID: 33148751

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Project description:The COVID-19 pandemic is the largest viral pandemic of the 21st century. We aimed to study COVID-19 knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) among medical and health sciences students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). We performed a cross-sectional study between 2 June and 19 August 2020. The survey was distributed online using Survey Monkey. It was conducted in English and comprised two parts: socio-demographic characteristics, and KAP towards COVID-19. 712 responses to the questionnaire were collected. 90% of respondents (n = 695) were undergraduate students, while 10% (n = 81) were postgraduates. The majority (87%, n = 647) stated that they obtained COVID-19 information from multiple reliable sources. They were highly knowledgeable about the COVID-19 pandemic, but 76% (n = 539) did not recognize its routes of transmission. Medical students were significantly more knowledgeable compared with allied health students (P<0.0001, Mann Whitney U test) but there was no difference in knowledge between undergraduate and postgraduate students (P = 0.14, Mann Whitney U test). Medical students thought that more could be done to mitigate the COVID-19 situation compared with the allied health students (66.2% compared with 51.6%, p = 0.002 Fisher's Exact test). 63% (n = 431) were worried about getting COVID-19 infection, while 92% (n = 633)) were worried that a family member could be infected with the virus. 97% (n = 655) took precautions when accepting home deliveries, 94% (n = 637) had been washing their hands more frequently, and 95% (n = 643) had been wearing face masks. In conclusion, medical and health sciences students in the UAE showed high levels of knowledge and good attitudes and practices towards the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, they were worried about themselves or their family members becoming infected. Medical students had more knowledge about COVID-19 pandemic which was reflected in their opinion that more can be done to mitigate its effects.

Project description:BackgroundThe purpose of the article was to assess students' perception of the learning environment at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, United Arab Emirates University using the 'Medical School Learning Environment Survey' (MSLES). Evaluating the learning environment and working towards its improvement is crucial for the physical and mental well-being of medical students, as it contributes to fostering an optimal learning environment.MethodsStudents participated in four groups: Year-1 (pre-medical), Year-2 (pre-medical), Year-3/Year-4 (pre-clinical), and Year-5/Year-6 (clinical). MSLES data was collected from each group using an online survey tool (Qualtrics XM). Latent factor structures in the learning environment constructs were assessed using 'exploratory factor analysis'; and reliability was measured by Cronbach's alpha. Differences among groups were assessed by 'single factor ANOVA'.ResultsThree hundred seventy-seven (65%) of the 584 eligible students completed the survey. Exploratory factor analysis revealed four factors: (Genn J. AMEE Medical Education Guide 23 (Part 1): Curriculum, environment, climate, quality and change in medical education-a unifying perspective. Med Teach. 2001;23(4):337-44.) Learning experience (∝=0.71), (Maudsley RF. Role models and the learning environment: essential elements in effective medical education. Acad Med. 2001;76(5):432-4.) Student-student interaction (∝=0.69), (Gruppen LD, Irby DM, Durning SJ, Maggio LA. Conceptualizing learning environments in the health professions. Acad Med. 2019;94(7):969-74.) Student-faculty interaction (∝=0.62), and (Soemantri D, Herrera C, Riquelme A. Measuring the educational environment in health professions studies: A systematic review. Med Teach. 2010;32(12):947-52.) Academic support (∝=0.62). Students in Y3-Y6 rated the learning environment statistically significantly lower than that in Y1-Y2. Student-student interaction in Y2 was significantly lower than that in other years. Student-faculty interaction in Y1 was significantly higher than that in Y2. Academic support was significantly higher in Y1 than that in Y2-Y6.ConclusionThe MSLES revealed variabilities in learning domains across the years. Improvement efforts should foster student-student collaboration in Y2 and improve academic support approaches for Y2-6. These findings provide valuable insights for medical educators to enhance the medical school learning environment and foster an optimal learning environment in lifelong medical education.

Project description:BackgroundAlthough healthcare regulation is commonplace, there is limited evidence of its impact. Making sure that healthcare professionals comply with the regulatory requirements is a prerequisite to achieving effective regulation. Therefore, investigating factors that influence compliance may provide better insights into how regulators can be more effective. This study aimed to find out if medical students' perceptions of regulation in the United Arab Emirates are associated with self-reported regulatory compliance.MethodsIn the cross-sectional study, we administered a structured questionnaire to students of medicine with different statements concerning their perceptions of healthcare regulation and self-reported compliance. The statements included statement regarding the legitimacy, fairness and regulatory performance, as well as the risk to getting caught and being punished. The association between perceptions and self-reported compliance was analyzed using multiple regression models.ResultsOne hundred and six Year 3 and 4 pre-clinical medicine students (56.4% response rate) completed the survey. Almost 40% of the students rated their level of awareness and understanding of regulation as Good or Very Good., despite their lack of direct contact with the regulatory authorities (less than 10% reported monthly or more frequent contact). Self-reported compliance was high with almost 85% of the students either agreeing or strongly agreeing with the four compliance statements (mean score 4.1 out of 5). The findings suggest that positive perceptions of the regulator's performance (β 0.27; 95% CI 0.13-0.41), fairness of the regulatory processes (β 0.25; 95% CI 0.11-0.38) and its legitimacy (β 0.23; 95% CI 0.05-0.41), are stronger associated with compliance than the perceived risks of getting caught and being punished (β 0.10; 95% CI -0.04 - 0.23).ConclusionsTo improve compliant behavior, healthcare regulators should pay more attention to their own perceived performance, as well as the perceived fairness and legitimacy of their regulatory processes rather than focusing on more traditional methods of deterrence, such as perceived risk of getting caught and being published.

Project description:BackgroundThis study estimates the potential health gains achievable in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with improved controls on environmental pollution. The UAE is an emerging economy in which population health risks have shifted rapidly from infectious diseases to chronic conditions observed in developed nations. The UAE government commissioned this work as part of an environmental health strategic planning project intended to address this shift in the nature of the country's disease burden.Methods and findingsWe assessed the burden of disease attributable to six environmental exposure routes outdoor air, indoor air, drinking water, coastal water, occupational environments, and climate change. For every exposure route, we integrated UAE environmental monitoring and public health data in a spatially resolved Monte Carlo simulation model to estimate the annual disease burden attributable to selected pollutants. The assessment included the entire UAE population (4.5 million for the year of analysis). The study found that outdoor air pollution was the leading contributor to mortality, with 651 attributable deaths (95% confidence interval [CI] 143-1,440), or 7.3% of all deaths. Indoor air pollution and occupational exposures were the second and third leading contributors to mortality, with 153 (95% CI 85-216) and 46 attributable deaths (95% CI 26-72), respectively. The leading contributor to health-care facility visits was drinking water pollution, to which 46,600 (95% CI 15,300-61,400) health-care facility visits were attributed (about 15% of the visits for all the diseases considered in this study). Major study limitations included (1) a lack of information needed to translate health-care facility visits to quality-adjusted-life-year estimates and (2) insufficient spatial coverage of environmental data.ConclusionsBased on international comparisons, the UAE's environmental disease burden is low for all factors except outdoor air pollution. From a public health perspective, reducing pollutant emissions to outdoor air should be a high priority for the UAE's environmental agencies.

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Dataset Information

First year medical students' perceptions of the impact of wearing scrubs on professional identity: a narrative analysis in the United Arab Emirates.

Publications

First year medical students' perceptions of the impact of wearing scrubs on professional identity: a narrative analysis in the United Arab Emirates.

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