Medical, nursing, and midwifery students
Overview
During 2008, HIFA2015 has had a special focus on the information needs of health students, and we shall continue to address these issues right through to 2015. Our activities have included a preliminary literature search on the following databases:
• African Health Line
• Ask Source
• British Nursing Index
• CAB Direct
• CINAHL
• Embase
• LISA
• Maternity and Infant Care
• Medline
• Web of Science.
31 papers were selected, retrieved in full text, and read.
Quotes from the literature
Health students
“The concern in the developing world, where at least two-thirds of future physicians are being educated, is the lack of access to current scientific data to help in medical decision-making. Library resources in these settings are usually scarce, inconsistent, incompletely catalogued or nonexistent. How can neophyte health care professionals in developing countries learn to make choices in clinical practice without supporting information and resources?”
Haddad & MacLeod 1999
“The major drawbacks of PBL [problem based learning] are the high cost of the resources necessary for its effective implementation and support, such as books, journals, computers and internet accessibility, together with facilitators who are competent, dedicated and versatile; a set of attributes difficult to find and in need of development in Africa. (Reference to Berkel & Dolmans 2006).”
Jacob Mufunda et al 2007
“Our library is poor in Lusaka, Zambia - no journals or books. Ptolemy opened for me a new world of knowledge. Like a child in a toy shop. It is difficult to stop once you start browsing. Unfortunately internet connection is often very poor, and downloading or opening a page is difficult. That is the time when I stop.“
Respondent quoted by Massey Beveridge et 2003
“While more than half (58%) of the medical students are computer literate, majority (75.9%) of the student nurses are not.”
Grace Ajuwon 2003
Nursing and midwifery students
“The styles of teaching and learning differ in the four countries. In Ghana and Uganda, the lack of reading materials and textbooks put the onus on lecturers to provide detailed teaching notes and handouts for students… Nursing students in Ghana and Uganda are very polite and reluctant to question teaching or information given.”
Khalil D 2006
“This curriculum does not reflect the reality of working conditions, available resources and constraints in developing countries including Bangladesh (WHO, 1992). It is also lacking in some es.sential elements including life saving skills, behaviour science and basic management and communication skills. As a result, nurses lack the knowledge and skills to carry out basic interventions recommended by tbe Safe Motherhood Initiative.”
Tasnim S et al 2006
“The sources of practice knowledge questions [among registered nurses and those undertaking degree programmes] showed that the most frequently chosen sources were information learned in nursing school (n = 339, 68%), textbooks (n = 279, 56%), and clinical experiences (n = 219, 44&). Information from the Internet (including online journals) (n = 4, 1%) and information from software or compact disk (CD) databases (n = 5, 1%) were the least commonly cited sources.”
Cragg C et al 2003
Medical students
“This study revealed high computer use among medical students in an institution [in south India] with good computer facilities.”
Sumant C et al 2004
“[Medical students in Sri Lanka] had very poor access to computers and Internet use was rare.”
Edirippulige S et al 2007
“The barriers to better use of the Internet mentioned by [medical] students included: poor skills, high costs per hour in the Internet cafés, failure to find the required information, poor knowledge of the English language and time constraints. Of the 33 (21.2%) who had never used the Internet, two-thirds of them were first year students. The reasons for never-use included: lack of interest, inability to use it, unaware of its uses and lack of suitable time.”
Ahmed A et al 2008
Specialist training
“The ophthalmologists I encounter [in various regions of Asia, unspecified] have received substandard training for a variety of reasons. They have been trained almost exclusively by didactic lectures and may not have been allowed to ask questions… I am still surprised by very serious gaps in basic knowledge that are obvious barriers to clinical practice. The inability to elicit a meaningful history is almost always present and is accompanied by a failure to perform a thoughtful and systematic ocular examination… It is not unusual to discover that there has been a total absence of any documentation of clinical findings.”
Standefer 2005
Allied health students
“I gave up doing [community-based] assignments because I never had any reading material.”
Student radiographer at Makerere University, Uganda, quoted in Mubuke et al 2008
References
Cragg, C et al. 2003. Integrating Web-based technology into distance education for nurses In China. Computers, Informatics, Nursing 21 (5) 265-74 [restricted access]
Edirippulige S. et al. Medical students’ knowledge and perceptions of e-health: results of a study in Sri Lanka. Medinfo 2007. 12(Pt 2):1406-9 [restricted access]
Khalil DD. 2006. Experiences of Teaching Nursing in Four Countries [United Kingdom, Ghana, Uganda, and South Africa]. Nurs Forum 41(2) 88-94.pdf [restricted access]
Mufunda J et al. 2007. Challenges in training the ideal Doctor for Africa: lessons learned from Zimbabwe. Med Teacher 29(9-10) 878-81 [restricted access]
Qidwai W 2003 Structured feedback from students in tutorial teaching. Journal of the College of Physicians and Surgeons Pakistan 2003;13(12)726-727 [restricted access]
Standefer J. 2005. Barriers to learning in teaching programmes. Asian J Ophthalmol 7(4) 131-2.
Sumant C et al. 2004. Computer use among medical students in an institution in southern India. Nat Med J India 17(1) 8 [restricted access]
Tasnim S et al 2006 Development of a skilled midwifery course for Bangladeshi nurses. Br J Midwif 14(3) 130-3 [restricted access]
Ugochukwu, E. F. et al. Breast-feeding knowledge and attitudes of medical students at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nigeria. Journal of College of Medicine, 2005, 10, 2, 75-78 [restricted access]
Acknowledgements
Our thanks to all members of the HIFA Challenge Working Group, and particular thanks to HIFA2015 volunteers John Eyers (Independent, former deputy head of library at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine); Jackie Cheeseborough, Julie Key and Naazlin Lalani (Royal College of Nursing); and Jacky Berry, Martin Carroll, Helen Elwell and Abi Smith (British Medical Association). The HIFA 2008 Challenge was made possible thanks to financial support from the British Medical Association. Activities continue in 2009 with support from the BMA, Royal College of Midwives, and Royal College of Nursing.
