Learning objectives of medical students: What is the message?

Objective: To involve medical students actively in defining their learning objectives. Material and methods: A cohort of 51 medical students during their 6 weeks attachment to the Department of Family and Community Medicine at King Saud University were asked at the beginning of the attachment to work out their learning objectives with the help of their tutors, Produced learning objectives were analyzed and compared to a similar study carried out in the U.K. Results: With 100% response rate a total of 418 learning objectives were identified by this cohort of students. In comparison to British medical students there were similarities as well as differences which may reflect environmental differences. Discussion and conclusion: Recent trends in medical education emphasize the importance of active participation of medical students in the learning process. However, unless the environment is conducive students may be inhibited from taking the risk of change from passive absorber of information into active learner. Medical schools should adopt certain strategies which enable students to be active, self-directed and critical learners. In this way we can produce versatile doctors who could cope well with constant change. This study has shown that our medical students can be involved actively in identifying their learning objectives and, interestingly, they see primary care both as a useful and diverse source of learning for them.