Background Online communication has taken over in the last 2 years due to the frequent lockdowns because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Overburdened physicians in this pandemic are struggling to get enough time to teach clinical skills online to the students. Also, due to student’s safety issues, the students cannot fully attend the clinics. Therefore, in this scenario, online PAL (Peer Assisted Learning) sessions for clinical skill teaching and learning can be an effective alternative for undergraduate medical students. The academic limitations caused by the COVID-19 related lockdown however can have a pleasurable outcome if certain challenges, related to online PAL, are overcome. Therefore, the present study aims to identify the challenges of Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) sessions during online clinical skills training in the Ophthalmology module of undergraduate medical students. Methods This qualitative exploratory study, utilizing online focus group discussions to explore the challenges of online PAL in training and learning of clinical skills were carried at the Ophthalmology department of Batterjee Medical College, Jeddah; Saudi Arabia. A purposive convenient sampling technique was used to collect data. Data were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis. Results The study identified six themes that were further divided into smaller subthemes. The subthemes derived from the collected data were organized under the following major themes; infrastructure, learning environment, psychological problems, interaction deficit, learning desires, and desire for feedback on performance. The major challenge reported by the medical student during online PAL sessions was infrastructure in terms of network connection, scheduling, and timing of the session. The unprofessional learning environment, psychological problems in terms of behavioral issues and personality changes, interaction deficit with peers, tutor, and patient, learning desires, and desire for feedback on performance were the other important challenges faced by the students. Conclusion The challenges explored by our study can be used by the medical educators to incorporate online PAL as an effective, efficient, and alternative teaching and learning modality in the curriculum especially in compromised circumstances like the current COVID-19 pandemic.

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Glaucoma is an irreversible chronic disease that damages the optic nerve. Knowledge and skills related to glaucoma are extremely important for frontline physicians. This study aimed to determine the knowledge and management as well as examination and referral practices related to glaucoma among physicians at primary care centers and secondary hospitals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Method This was a cross-sectional study of 126 physicians, including general practitioners as well as emergency, internal, and family physicians from three hospitals and five medical centers in Riyadh. A validated self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. It was divided into six categories: sociodemographic data and practice setting; and glaucoma assessmentquestions regarding risk factors, knowledge, examination, management, and referral practices. Results Of the 126 participants, 32.8% were family physicians. Surprisingly, the overall knowledge score for glaucoma was suboptimal (34.2%). While half of the doctors were aware of the medications used in glaucoma, 88.7% considered themselves unqualified to manage glaucoma. Although 93.7% agreed that increased ocular pressure requires urgent referral to an ophthalmologist, only 33.3% stated they were comfortable using tonometry. Conclusion The majority of physicians (65.8%) showed a poor level of knowledge regarding glaucoma, which was reflected in their referral practices (66.9%). Therefore, promoting increased glaucoma awareness along with improved examination skills and referral practice among frontline physicians is essential to prevent this avoidable cause of blindness.

Objective: To explore the perception and attitude about simulation-based learning (SBL) of clinical skills in undergraduate medical students.Place and Duration of Study: College of Medicine, Princess Noura bint Abdulrehman university; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from March to September 2019.Method: A pre-tested structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect the data about student’s perception about simulation-based learning. Informed written consent was taken from the students. Data analysis was done by SPSS version 21 and Chi square test was used to see the association between the variables of the interest.Result: Mean age of the students was 21.5 (standard deviation ±1.8) years. Majority of the students (81.6%) found SBL as a favorable mode of learning clinical skills. 59% of the students found it useful to manage to see the rarest cases in medicine. Many of them believed it useful to overcome the problems of uncooperative patients (59.1%) and to solve the problem in getting the patients during exam (60.2%). They also strongly believed that simulation should be integrated in medical school curriculum as an efficient tool for learning clinical skillsConclusion: The study strongly suggests student’s positive perspective towards learning through simulation. Medical educators and curriculum designers can use the results of the study to incorporate simulation in undergraduate curriculum to train and enhance student’s clinical skills and maintain patient safety.

Background In recent days when mankind is passing through the difficult times of COVID-19 pandemic with lock down, almost all over the world, online communication has taken over the world. Overburdened physicians in this pandemic cannot get enough time to teach clinical skills online to the students. Also, due to student’s safety issues, the students cannot attend the clinics. Therefore, in this scenario online PAL sessions for clinical skill teaching and learning can be an effective alternative for undergraduate medical students. The academic limitations caused by the COVID-19 related lockdown however can have a pleasurable outcome if certain challenges, related to online PAL, are overcome. Therefore, the present study aims to identify the challenges of Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) sessions during online clinical skills training in Ophthalmology module of undergraduate medical students.MethodologyThis qualitative exploratory study, utilizing online focus group discussions to explore the challenges of online PAL in training and learning of clinical skills was carried at Ophthalmology department of Batterjee Medical College, Jeddah; Saudi Arabia. Ethical approval was taken from the college and purposive convenient sampling technique was used to collect data. Data was transcribed and analyzed by using thematic analysisResultsThe study identified six themes for argument and classified into further smaller subthemes. The subthemes derived from the collected data were organized under major themes; infrastructure, learning environment, psychological problems, interaction deficit, learning desires and desire for feedback on performance. In our study, major challenge faced by the medical student during online PAL sessions was infrastructure in terms of network connection, scheduling, timing of the session which overpowered by other challenges of online PAL. Unprofessional learning environment, psychological problems in terms of behavioral issues and personality changes, interaction deficit with peers, tutor and patient, learning desires and desire for feedback on performance were the other important challenges faced by the students. ConclusionThe challenges explored by our study can be used by the medical educators to incorporate online PAL as an effective, efficient and alternative teaching and learning modality in the curriculum especially in compromised circumstances like current COVID-19 pandemic.