Rating Assessment of Global Health Courses in two Medical School in Rome

Background In response to the increasing recognition of the importance of Global Health (GH) in medical education, most of Italian medical schools introduced optional courses according to a standard curriculum, shared and updated by the Italian Network for Global Health Education. The main modules include issues concerning Health determinants, Globalization, Inequalities, Migration and International Health Cooperation. Student rating assessment provide essential data to enhance quality progressively. Objectives During 2010-2011 academic year, in three Faculties of Medicine in Rome, an end-course questionnaire was submitted to medical (MS) and other health professional (OS) students, in order to evaluate student satisfaction with consistency of contents compared to the expectations, utility for future career, teachers’ clarity, teaching methodologies, relevance of GH issues in current medical curriculum. The satisfaction degree assessment was carried out by identifying 5 levels based on a score (from 0 to 27) obtained by the questionnaire. The 5 levels were labeled as not enough (score: 0-10), just right (score: 11-15), fairly good (score: 16-19), good (score: 20-23), excellent (score: 24-27). Frequency (N) and percentages (%) were calculated for each satisfaction degree comparing MS and OS. Inferential analyses were performed (χ2 test at the 0.05 significance level). Results All 113 students attending the courses answered the questionnaire: 89 (78.76%) were MS and 24 (21.24%) OS. No student reported not enough satisfaction. Just right satisfaction was reported by 4 (4.49%) MS and 1 (4.17%) OS. For 16 (17.98%) MS and 4 (16.67%) OS the course ranked fairly good satisfaction, while 46 (51.68%) MS and 14 (58.33%) OS accounted for good rating. Excellent degree was reached by 23 (25.84%) MS and 5 (20.83%) OS. No association between the level of satisfaction and the belonging to the degree courses (MS and OS students) was found (p>0.05). Conclusions Our rating assessment shows appreciation of GH issues, because students experience the relevance in the globalized context and in their future leadership in Health, both for domestic and international careers. Further evaluations could support in the comprehension of other aspects in order to improve teaching quality.