Introducing the IMCI community component into the curriculum of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Gezira

In 2001 the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Gezira [FMUG] started to introduce the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness [IMCI] strategy into its medical curriculum. The emphasis was on pre-service training that addresses standard case management and the IMCI community component. This report presents the experience of FMUG in integrating such a training package into the medical curriculum. It explains the rationale for introducing the IMCI community component and the guiding principles for doing so. It describes the community-based courses into which the community component was integrated, the implementation and impact of the programme and the constraints faced

BDN programmes and the effect of medical students' interventions to promote child health in Sudan

Basic development needs [BDN] is an approach to community development that aims at improving quality of life through the full involvement and self-management of communities, supported by intersectoral collaboration. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of BDN implementation in an area of Sudan on aspects of a programme implemented by students from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Gezira. The study revealed that the joint implementation of BDN programmes and students' interventions brought about marked improvement of family and community practices as well as greater reduction in the incidence of all assessed major childhood illnesses [diarrhoea, cough and fever] than when the students' programme was implemented alone. BDN implementation also facilitated the retrieval of good quality community-based data

[Evaluating the impact of Arabization on medical students' acquisition, Gezira University,Sudan]

This study aimed to assess the teaching of medicine in Arabic at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Gezira, and its impact on the academic attainments of graduates in terms of their final grade point average [GPA]. Of a total of 20 graduation classes, 16 classes were selected, 8 of which [classes 5 to 12] studied in English whereas the other 8 [classes 13 to 20] studied in Arabic. The last 8 classes include all graduates [until January 2004] since the Arabic teaching system was first introduced. The proportion of graduates with excellent grade [GPA 3.5 to 4.0], very good and good grade [GPA 2.50 to 3.49], overall pass grade [2.00 and above] of both groups were calculated and compared, as were the failure rates [GPA below 2.00]. The overall performance of the classes that studied in Arabic was better [P < 0.05]