PERCEPTION, ATTITUDES AND BARRIERS IN UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL STUDENTS TOWARD MEDICAL RESEARCH AT REHMAN MEDICAL COLLEGE, PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN

OBJECTIVE: To identify the perception, attitude and barriers of undergraduate medical students toward medical research at Rehman Medical College, Peshawar, Pakistan. METHODS: This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in undergraduate medical students of Rehman Medical College, Peshawar, Pakistan from th th 15 May to 15 June 2016. A pretested questionnaire was completed by 150 medical students. The questionnaire consisted of 16 questions. The students response was recorded on a Likert Scale from strongly agree (1) to strongly disagree (5). The collected data was analyzed by SPSS version 17. RESULTS: Of the 400 students enrolled 150 of the student s responded. The response rate was 37.5%. Seventy percent of the students had previous experience in research and 92% had agreed upon that research is an important component of medical education while 88.6% considered research as a mandatory component of medical school curriculum. The motives of the student s behind conducting research during medical school made research mandatory in curriculum (88.6%), facilitating acceptance to residency program (40.7%), appreciation and acknowledgement by teachers (47.3%) and research by peer (46.7%). The barriers were lack of interest (16.7%), lack of time due to extensive medical curriculum (58%), exam phobia (49.3%), lack of training in scientific literature search (31.4%) and research methodology (25.3%). CONCLUSION: The majority of students in the study showed diverse attitudes and perceptions toward medical research. Addressing perceived students barriers can help in an improvement in research activities among medical students.