ArticleJournal of family medicine and primary care2021
The impact of the English medical curriculum on medical history taking from Arabic speaking patients by medical students.
Article in Journal of family medicine and primary care, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Decolonizing medical education: a systematic review of educational language barriers in countries using foreign languages for instruction.BMC medical education · 2025Pooled it
- Effect of choice of instruction language on anatomy learning outcomes.Anatomical sciences education · 2026Article
- Arab Medical Students' Attitudes Toward the Arabization of Medical Education: A Multiregional Cross-Sectional Study.Advances in medical education and practice · 2026Article
- Phase-contingent resilience effects in multilingual medical students: a cross-sectional examination of student demands-resources theory.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Article
- Article
- Promoting physician-patient language concordance in undergraduate medical education: a peer assisted learning approach.BMC medical education · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionMedical education in Saudi medical colleges is delivered to students through a completely English language curriculum, whereas the practice that students face in the hospital is generally conducted in Arabic language settings. We suggest that the linguistic gap between the adopted medical curriculum and actual practice could influence students' confidence and level of difficulty in history taking in Arabic. The study aimed to identify the effects of learning history taking in the English language on applying it in the medical student's native language.
methodsThis cross-sectional design study was held in the College of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS). The targeted sample size was 377 medical students from the fourth to the sixth year, and stratified random sampling was used. The questionnaire used was self-developed, validated, and pilot tested in other medical colleges. The questionnaire asked about students' confidence, the difficulty of Arabic history taking, and suggested strategies to improve the current curriculum.
resultsThe response rate was 290 participants (76.9%), males were 205 (71%), and 136 (47%) were in the fourth year. Agreement on feeling confident while taking history taking in Arabic was 98 (33.8%), 102 (35.2%) were neutral, and 90 (31%) disagreed. Moreover, 138 (47.6%) of students preferred training for Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in Arabic more than English, 86 (29.7%) were neutral, while 66 (22.8%) disagreed. The mean level of difficulty was 2.1 ± 0.7 (range 1- 5). Additionally, 198 (68%) of students suggested adding short Arabic history courses.
conclusionStudents considered history taking in Arabic as easy, even though they were not completely confident. Further efforts are needed to uplift students' of confidence to optimal levels. ADVANCES IN KNOWLEDGE: Communication is the cornerstone of medical education as well as clinical practice. The study explores the impact of instruction language on the physician-patient communication dynamic, providing better infrastructure for evidence-based educational practice. APPLICATION TO PATIENT CARE: This study gives insight into the students' level of preparation to practice in their local community and language. Furthermore, the study addresses strategies to enhance students communication skills and alleviate linguistic barriers in the physician-patient encounter.
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