A cross‐cultural comparison of problem students on clinical rotations

Abstract

When lecturers teach in the clinical setting, they encounter a variety of student problems. To understand better the perception of the frequency and degree of difficulty associated with different teaching problems, the Association of American Medical Colleges developed a questionnaire describing 21 types of student problems encountered in the clinical setting. This study compares faculty and student perceptions of the frequency of these problems at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine and in two medical schools in Malaysia. Spearman rank correlation tests across all four combinations of faculty and students showed the ranking to be significantly similiar (p < .001). UW faculty identified knowledge‐based problems as more frequent than the UW students in this sample, who ranked communication and interpersonal skill problems as more frequent. The Malaysian faculty perceived students who were “shy”; as more frequent than their students who perceived the challenging student as more frequent. The overall consistency in ranking certain types of problems as relatively frequent and difficult to correct suggest strategies for educational workshops.