Predictors of College Academic Achievement for Medical Students: The Case of Gondar University, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Ethiopia.

Background: In Ethiopia, the University Entrance Exam (UEE) score is the only criteria for selecting prospective medical students entering the university system, disregarding their career choice motivation. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted to identify medical students career choice motivation and predictors of college academic achievement at Gondar university, Ethiopia. The study was conducted on 222 medical students enrolled at Gondar University in 2016. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data on study participants demographic characteristics, career choice motivation, and informed career choice. Data on the UEE score and student's college academic achievement were collected from the university registrar. Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Results: Desire to help others as a medical doctor and prevent and cure diseases were mentioned as the first important career choice reasons by 147 (68.2%) and 135 (64.0%) study participants, respectively. The results of regression analysis showed that the UEE score was significantly associated with pre-clinical cumulative GPA (R2=.327, p<.05) and 5th year cumulative GPA (R2=.244, p<.05) respectively. The stepwise multiple regression revealed that UEE score, having prior knowledge about medical profession, positive experience in the medical school, and intrinsic career choice motivation significantly predicted 5th year cumulative GPA (p<.05). The high beta weight of 0.254 and 0.202 confirmed the strongest prediction to come from prior knowledge about the medical profession and positive experience in medical school, respectively. Conclusion and Recommendation: The UEE score is a significant predictor for medical students' academic achievement, but it should not be the sole admission criterion. We suggest that comprehensive admissions criteria covering both cognitive and non-cognitive factors, as well as informed career choice, be developed to select the best applicants in the future.

The Development and Validation of a Professional Development Program for Health Professional Educators in Ethiopian Higher Education Context.

Despite the presence of a common agreement on the importance of integrating professional development (PD) for instructors in higher education (HE), the level of progress made in that regard varies greatly across HE systems around the world. Part of the variation was due to the lack of comprehensive theories and guidelines that leverage efforts to integrate PD issues into HE system. Also, there is limited research regarding the development and revision of PD programs for instructors of health sciences in HE setting. The limited studies primarily lack a comprehensive or all-encompassing framework that capture the complexities of the program development and validation process. Rather, they are essentially impact evaluation studies, examining the short-term and long-term benefits of the programs under studies. This study offers a theoretical rationale and a three-step framework for PD program development and review in HE through presenting a case study of an innovative PD program in the Ethiopian public university context. A three-step approach that consists of curriculum development, an iterative research-based review, and collaborative revision and validation is recommended in this study, to promote a commitment to systematic planning and research-based review and revision in a PD of instructors in HE in Ethiopia and beyond.

The Promise of the New Educational Strategy for Curriculum Development (SPICES) Model on the Development of Students' Clinical Reasoning Ability. A Comparative Cross-Sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: Clinical reasoning skills are a core competency that must be taught at all levels of health-care education. In the last decade, several health professional education curricula in Ethiopia have been redesigned with the goal of improving student competence in key health-care delivery skills. Despite the fact that some academic programs followed the conventional educational strategy, a significant number of academic programs adopted a new educational strategy for curriculum development: Student-centered, Problem-based, Integrated, Community-based, Elective, and Systematic (SPICES) model. More empirical evidence, however, is required to determine whether the new curricular approach is effective in improving students' clinical reasoning. The purpose of this study is to determine whether the new educational strategy for curriculum development improves the clinical reasoning ability of midwifery students when compared to a peer institution that follows a traditional curriculum. METHODS: A comparative cross-sectional study was conducted to compare the clinical reasoning skills of midwifery students who completed the new curricular approach versus students who completed a traditional curriculum. A Script Concordance Test (SCT) was used to collect data. The mean SCT score and an independent two-sample t-test were calculated to see if the two groups differed significantly in terms of clinical reasoning skills in managing Post-Partum hemorrhage (PPH). RESULTS: A total of 77 final-year midwifery students participated (38 from the new and 39 from the traditional curriculum approach). Midwifery students who completed the new and conventional curriculum approaches had mean clinical reasoning SCT scores of 0.7 (SD = 0.35) and 0.53 (SD = 0.37), respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in the overall mean SCT score between the two study groups in terms of clinical reasoning skills (p = 0.008). CONCLUSION: Our study found that the new SPICES model curricular approach is promising in fostering the development of clinical reasoning skills of Midwifery students in managing PPH.