DAMMAM, 1 February 2006 — A group of medical students from the Dammam branch of King Faisal University returned to the Kingdom from a Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) medical conference in Oman.
These students joined approximately 650 others, mostly from medical centers throughout Saudi Arabia and GCC countries. For the first time, four of the students were Saudi women, including three from King Faisal University’s Dammam branch. The Saudi women gave a presentation about a study regarding the relationship between patients and health care providers in Saudi Arabia, which won fifth place at the conference.
“My two colleges and I prepared a poster about patients’ attitudes toward medical students and communication skills in tertiary hospitals in Saudi Arabia. This is the first study done about this topic in Saudi Arabia,” said medical student Mona Al-Faraj.
Ahad Al-Khunaizi, another participant, said the aim of their proposed awareness campaign was to address patients’ concerns about being treated by interns.
“Students usually face difficulties with patients who think that they are learning at the expense of their health,” said Al-Khunaizi, who is a fifth-year medical student. “So, it was aimed to explore patients’ attitudes toward medical students and factors that influence them. We tried to find the factors to improve the communication between the students and patients.”
