Teaching and evaluation of medical ethics in the Saudi and Arab medical schools - Introduction and invitation to participate

2 September, 2022

Dear colleagues,

This is an invitation to participate in a study entitled ‘Teaching and evaluation of medical ethics in the Saudi and Arab medical schools’. This research project aims to describe how medical (healthcare) ethics are taught and evaluated in Saudi and Arab medical schools. You are invited because you are currently involved in the planning, delivery, and/or assessment of students, or the evaluation of modules/courses related to medical ethics, professionalism, and law.

You are invited to fill in this questionnaire, which is comprised of 4 main sections: The demographic profile of the institution you are currently affiliated with, the content and phasing of teaching medical ethics, the format and phasing of assessment of medical ethics, and the evaluation of these courses. We anticipate it will take you 10 - 20 minutes to fill in. You will be giiven the chance to save it and return to it later if needed.

Your participation is voluntary, and no personal or identifiable data are required. There is no direct benefit or compensation for your participation. No question is expected to cause you any discomfort or other form of harm to you or your institution. However, you are free not to answer any particular question or withdraw at any time.

Upon the completion of the form, you may choose to be contacted for an in-depth interview and/or participate in a focus group to discuss the findings of this questionnaire. The answers to the questionnaire will be saved online following the university’s cybersecurity standards and only the PI and the co-PI will have access to the data. The data will be analysed cumulatively, and it will not be possible to link you or your institution to any particular finding in any of the publications that will result from this study. Those who choose to participate in interviews and focus groups will be acknowledged without being linked to any particular finding.

This study has been ethically reviewed and approved by the institutional review board of King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact the Principal Investigator, Prof Abdulaziz Alkabba, Professor of Family Medicine and Bioethics, AL-Imam University - College of Medicine, via email: afkaabba@imamu.edu.sa or mobile - 00966505376990

By pressing the ‘Next’ button below [*see note below], you are giving your consent to participate in this study.

https://forms.gle/Q2YzEWH7WEq9jK9QA

HIFA profile: Ghaiath Hussein is a registrar of community medicine and bioethicist by training. His expertise varied from providing assistance for researchers on technical and ethical issues, to editing and developing ethical guidelines and training manuals on research ethics. He has been working in the department of research at the Federal Ministry of Health (Sudan), before being assigned as the Senior Project Officer a MARC (Mapping African Ethics Review Capacity) project managed by COHRED and funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP). Currently, he is an assistant professor of bioethics in King Saud University for Health Sciences, King Fahad Medical City Faculty of Medicine. He also provides voluntary ethics teaching and cosultation services for some regional and international organizations, especially on public health ethical issues. acsawy AT yahoo.com

[*Note from NPW, moderator: I don't see a 'Next' button but the above URL goes direct to the form]