Medical students’ perceptions towards research at a Sudanese University

BACKGROUND: Inadequately designed curricula and barriers to research have not enabled students to realize the crucial importance of research to clinical practice. Several studies have reported variable results with regards to research training. The aim of this survey was to evaluate research training at a university in Sudan which had provided research training for 17 years. METHODS: A university-based survey design, using a self-administered questionnaire, was conducted among final year medical students who completed 2 years of research training. Descriptive frequency analysis and bivariate analysis were performed using IBM SPSS version 20. RESULTS: The response rate was 76 %. Ninety-five (91.3 %) perceived research important to medicine and 62 (59.6 %) perceived that it should be a requirement for partial fulfillment of the MBBS degree. Elevation of professional standing as a clinician was the prime reason for pursuing a career in research (18/68.2 %). Main reasons for not pursuing a career in research was research being time consuming (49/59.8 %) and focusing on clinical service being more important than clinical research (48/58.5 %). Fifty-five (56.1 %) believe that their supervisor gave them a positive attitude to research. Principle barriers to student research were lack of funding (75/72.1 %), insufficient time (71/68.3 %) and the demands of the curriculum (70/67.3 %). No significant differences were detected between gender and perceptions towards research. CONCLUSION: The curriculum should be revised to address the gaps in research training. A small group learning model should be adopted to train students in research and provide supervision to group research projects. This model would improve academic learning, skills acquisition, encourage student interest in research, reduce barriers to student research and make better use of limited resources.