Effective Communication Barriers in Clinical Teaching among Malaysian Medical Students in Zagazig Faculty of Medicine (Egypt)
Keywords:
communication barriers, clinical environment, medical students, Malaysia, Arabic languageAbstract
Introduction: effective communication in a clinical environment plays a vital role in patient assessment and treatment. The aim of this study was to understand the experiences of Malaysian medical students concerning communication barriers during clinical practice. The goal was to provide answers for three important research questions, i.e., 1) Are communication barriers an impediment to Malaysian students during clinical teaching? 2) What is the nature of the language barriers that the students encounter? and 3) What are the best ways of reducing these barriers during clinical teaching?
Methods: The qualitative method was used to conduct the research, and open-ended questionnaires were used to collect the data. The study was conducted on 95 fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-year students, 80% of whom completed the study.
Results: Medical students from Malaysia who have limited knowledge of the Arabic language experience some difficulties in communicating with staff members, patients, and nurses during their clinical practices.
Conclusion: Successful orientation of students to the language used in the clinical environment will help the students overcome the communication barriers they encounter during their clinical practices.
References
Cultural Affairs and Student Mission Section- Ministry of Higher education, Egypt. Analytical study on
foreign students in Egypt, 2010, Available from: http://www.mohe.casm.edu.eg
Jeffrey J, Dumont RA, Kim GY and Kuo T. Effects of international health electives on medical student
learning and career choice: results of a systematic literature review. Fam Med. 2011; 43(1): 21-28
Mattila LR, Pitkäjärvi M, Eriksson E. International student nurses' experiences of clinical practice in the
Finnish health care system. Nurse Educ Pract. 2010; 10(3): 153-7. doi: 10.1016/j.nepr.2009.05.009, PMID:
Pitkäjärvi M, Eriksson E, Pitkälä K. The diversity issue revisited: International students in clinical
environment. ISRN Nursing. 2012;2012:294138. doi: 10.5402/2012/294138, PMID: 22548188, PMCID:
PMC3324143.
Andrews GJ, Brodie DA, Andrews JP, Wong J, Thomas BG. Place(ment) matters: students ‘clinical
experiences and their preferences for first employers. Int Nurs Rev. 2005; 52(2): 142-53, doi:
1111/j.1466-7657.2005.00262.x, PMID: 15842327.
Saarikoski M, Marrow C, Abreu W, Riklikiene O, Özbicakçi S. Student nurses' experience of supervision
and Mentorship in clinical practice: a cross cultural perspective. Nurse Educ Pract. 2007; 7(6): 407-15. doi:
1016/j.nepr.2007.02.006, PMID: 17936547.
Amaro DJ, Abriam-Yago K, Yoder M. Perceived barriers for ethnically diverse students in nursing
programs. J Nurs Educ. 2006; 45(7): 247-54, PMID: 16863104.
Koskinen L, Tossavainen K. Characteristics [correction of charactersistics] of intercultural mentoring--a
mentor perspective. Nurse Educ Today. 2003; 23(4): 278-85. doi: 10.1016/S0260-6917(03)00041-8, PMID:
Green BF, Johansson I, Rosser M, Tengnah C, Segrott J. Studying abroad: A multiple case study of nursing
students’ international experiences. Nurse Educ Today, 2008; 28(8):981-92. doi:
1016/j.nedt.2008.06.003, PMID: 18692278.
Rogan F, SanMiguel C, Brown D, & Kilstoff K. “Find yourself” Perceptions of nursing students from non- English speaking background of the effect of an intensive language support program on their oral clinical
communication skills. Contemporary Nurse. 2006; 23,(1): 72-86. doi: 10.5172/conu.2006.23.1.72.
Cruickshank K, Neweel S, Cole S. Meeting English language needs in teacher education: a flexible support
model for non-English speaking background students. Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education. 2003;
(3): 239-47. doi: 10.1080/0955236032000149373.
Tromp F, Rademakers JJD, Cate JM and Ten ThJ. Development of an instrument to assess professional
behavior of foreign medical graduates. Med Teach., 2007; 29(23):150-155. DOI:
1016/j.ijnurstu.2004.09.018
Cohen L, Manion L, Morrison K. Content analysis and grounded theory. Research Methods in Education.
th edition, 2007, chap. 23: 375-495, Taylor and Francis e-Libaray
Wong J. Are the Learning Styles of Asian International Students Culturally or Contextually Based?
International Education Journal, 2004, 4(4): 154-66.
Ramani S, Leinster S. Teaching in the clinical environment. Med Teach. AMEE GUIDE. 2008; 30: 347-64.
Windish DM, Price EG, Clever S L, Magaziner J L, Thomas P A. Teaching Medical Students the Important
Connection between Communication and Clinical Reasoning. J Gen Intern Med. 2005; 20(12): 1108-13.
doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2005.0244.x, PMID: 16423099, PMCID: PMC1490291.
Grant E, Mckenna L. International clinical placements for undergraduate students. Journal of Clinical
Nursing. 2003; (12): 529–35. doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2702.2003.00717.x.
Beckman TJ, Lee MC. Proposal for a Collaborative Approach to Clinical Teaching. Mayo Clinic
Proceeding. 2009; 84(4): 339-344. doi: 10.1016/S0025-6196(11)60543-0.
Dogra N, Reitmanova S, Carter-Pokras O. Twelve tips for teaching diversity and embedding it in the
medical curriculum. Med Teach. 2009; 31(11): 990-3. doi: 10.3109/01421590902960326, PMID:
, PMCID: PMC2967223.
Samuelowicz K. Learning Problems of Overseas Students: Two Sides of a Story, Higher Education
Research & Development, 1987; (6)2: 121-33. doi: 10.1080/0729436870060204.
Miguel CS, Rogan F, Kilstoff K, Brown D. Clinically speaking: a communication skills program for
students from non-English speaking backgrounds. Nurse Educ Pract. 2006; 6(5): 268-74. doi:
1016/j.nepr.2006.02.004, PMID: 19040888.
Shakya A, Horsfall JM. “ESL undergraduate nursing students in Australia: some experiences. Nursing and
Health Sciences. 2000; 2(3): 163–71. doi: 10.1046/j.1442-2018.2000.00050.x.
Kell C, Owen G. Approaches to learning on placement: the students' perspective. Physiother Res Int. 2009;
(2): 105-15. doi: 10.1002/pri.422, PMID: 18836990.
Lekkas P, Larsen T, Kumar S. No model of clinical education for physiotherapy students is superior to
another: a systematic review. Australian Journal of Physiotherapy. 2007; 53(1): 19–28. doi:
1016/S0004-9514(07)70058-2.
Becker KL, Rose LE, Berg JB, Park H, Shatzer JH. The teaching effectiveness of standardized patients. J
Nurs Educ. 2006; 45(4): 103-11, PMID: 16629278.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 KNOWLEDGE KINGDOM PUBLISHING
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.