Presentation and management of children with acute otitis media at primary care level

To determine the patterns of presentation of acute otitis media [AOM] diagnostic ability and antibiotic prescription by family physicians. This is a cross-sectional study conducted at 11 PHCC in Riyadh city in Saudi Arabia over 3 month period. Twenty eight family physicians participated in the study. A total of 135 children, less than 5 years of age and presenting with a new episode of AOM were included. The age group [> 30] months had more children presenting with earache compared to other age groups [p < 0.05]. Redness of the TM had the highest [> 50%] certainty level compared to other TM signs [94%] p < 0.05, while retracted TM had the highest [

Evaluation of three instructional methods of teaching for undergraduate medical students, at King Saud university, Saudi Arabia

There is an international move from traditional curriculum towards the learner - centered, and patient-oriented curriculum. In spite of its advantages, problem-based learning requires a larger number of teaching staff and space. This study was done to compare the problem-based learning [PBL], lectures and modified PBL methods. Thirty-three fifth year medical students who were taking the Family Medicine rotation participated in the study at the College of Medicine, King Saud University. Three instructors participated in the teaching of three topics to the three groups of students. Students acted as control for themselves across the three instructional methods, namely; lectures, PBL and modified PBL. The main outcomes were students' recall of knowledge, problem solving skills and topic comprehension. In the initial assessment, there was a significant difference in favor of PBL and the modified PBL regarding comprehension of the topic as tested by the short answer questions [p = 0.0001], problem solving skills as tested by the modified essay question [p = 0.002]. Non-significant results were observed at the second stage of assessment. The modified PBL method was the preferred one for 39% of the students, followed by the PBL [36%] and lastly the lectures [25%].This empirical study suggests some advantages for the PBL method and the modified PBL over the lecture method. Larger studies are needed to confirm our results of this important issue as the modified PBL is an affordable option for schools that can not meet the staff and space requirements of the PBL curriculum