Effect of integrating research skills in the medical curriculum: a comparative cross sectional study on students’ research practices and their perception at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah

Background: Health research plays a vital role in promoting medical students’ interest in academic medical careers, and increases their postgraduate research productivity. Scientific research skills were integrated into the developed medical curriculum implemented at King Abdulaziz University (KAU) in 2006-2007 and its impact on students’ research practices was not assessed till now. Objectives: this study aimed to assess the effect of integrating scientific research skills into the medical curriculum on research practices and perception among senior medical students at KAU. Subjects and methods: This comparative cross-sectional study was conducted at the KAU in the academic year 2014-2015. A validated questionnaire was distributed to all the sixth year medical students (n=307) and 60% (n=184) of them responded. Data was analysis by using the Statistical Package of Social Science. Results: About 51% of the students have started their own research projects and 17% have completed and published their articles, 14.7% of them got accepted manuscript for publication. Career progression (75%) was the main students’ motive to conduct research and the lack of dedicated time for research was the most reported obstacle to participate in research (73.4%). Students reported that inclusion of one-month rotation dedicated for research in the internship will enhance their research activity (68.5%) and agreed that research publication will greatly improve their postgraduate acceptance chances (95.1%). Conclusion: A large percent of KAU senior medical students have started their research project but only small percent succeed to complete it. Providing dedicated time for conduction research, more research opportunities and devoted supervisors are recommended to further boost students’ involvement in research.