Students’ perspective of bedside teaching: a qualitative study

Objectives: To determine students’ perception of bedside teaching, to find out barriers in its effective implementation and to suggest strategies to make it an effective learning tool.

Methods: This study was conducted in Faculty of Medicine, Northern Border University Arar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia between November 2013 and January 2014. The study design was qualitative inductive thematic analysis using transcripts from audio-recorded focus group discussions. Four focused group discussions with medical students of 4th and 5th year MBBS were conducted. Each 40 to 50 minutes discussion session was audio taped and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis extracted key themes pertaining to objectives of the study.

Results: A total 75 students of 4th and 5th year MBBS took part in the study, 48 were female and 27 of them were male. Students believed that bedside teaching is valuable for learning essential clinical skills. They described many barriers in its effective implementation: uncooperative and less number of patients and faculty attitude. Our students suggested various strategies to address these barriers: promotion of awareness among general public about students’ learning and its benefits, free medical treatment for expatriates and building of university hospital.

Conclusion: Bedside teaching is an important learning tool. Its utility can be enhanced by orienting local patients’ attitude towards importance of students’ learning, by providing free medical treatment to expatriates and by including bedside teaching in faculty development programs.