Abstract:

Background: Students attrition in Medical schools is a major concern, attrition rates are one of the important indicators being used by the accrediting bodies to measure the medical schools’ performance. Having understood the gravity of this issue, medical schools are paying great attention to curb the attrition rate. This review aims to understand the various reasons identified by worldwide medical schools for the attrition of students. The reasons identified by different medical schools and the attrition rate, detailed in this study will be of great value to the medical school administrators to address the attrition in their respective medical schools.

Methods: Based on the determined eligibility criteria, six electronic databases were searched in the year 2018 for relevant articles. Nine relevant articles were chosen for the study, the articles where chosen based on the experience of different medical schools from different countries, which include the UK, Nigeria, Jeddah, Croatia, Pakistan, Ireland, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Israel and Malaysia. Articles that reported the attrition rate and the reasons were chosen. An analysis was done to understand the experience of the worldwide medical schools and the reason attributed to attrition.

Results: A careful analysis of nine articles reveals that the attrition rate varied from 3.8% in Saudi Arabia to 26% in Croatia medical schools. UK medical school showed an attrition rate of 14%, Ireland- 5.7%, Nigeria- 7.8%, Jeddah- 20.8%, Croatia- 26%, Pakistan-16%, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia-3.8%, Israel- 12.6% and Malaysia- 5.9%. An average attrition rate of 12.5% was found in all schools from different countries.

The major reason for attrition is found to be academic difficulty followed by absenteeism, isolation, personal problems, psychological problem, and financial problems.

Conclusion: Investment into medical education is expensive compared to the other programs and dropping out from medical schools has multiple implications. The individual student has a major setback in life, the society loses the professional manpower. The medical school loses its revenue and waste its professionals time. In most cases it is observed that students drop out because of academic difficulty hence, it is imperative that medical schools pay more attention to screening students academically and psychologically. It should also create strong students support system and academic mentoring to minimize dropouts.

Keywords: Attrition Rate, Reasons for attrition, Academic difficulty, Dropouts.

References:

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Abstract:

Background: Peripheral neuropathy is characterized by distal damage to neurons along PNS which consists of loss of function. This would result from various factors.

Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy (CIPN), a side effect of chemotherapy decreasing quality of life. There are various mechanisms by which these cause CIPN are neuronal structural and functional alterations.

Method: Background searches into peripheral neuropathy and the chemotherapeutic agents that induce CIPN and their mechanisms were done from a series of journal databases.

Treatment options were sought from the same databases dating between 2003 and 2019. From this the therapeutic options that have been explored and tried and the updates to these have been enumerated a discussed.

Discussion: CIPN manifests from a heterogenous group of aetiologies. One standardized treatment option is not available for proper treatment of CIPN. Research over the years has produced methods of prevention and treatment for CIPN patients, including the use of preventative therapy, polypharmacy and some specific first line drugs. Nonpharmacological methods of treating CIPN comprises of the recent use of medicinal plants and complementary therapies for severe pain relief and better quality of life for these patients.

Future Scope of Studies: Over the past decade, despite many efforts to develop a standardized treatment for CIPN, there has been little success. As a result, many more future studies are strongly indicated.

Keywords: Chemotherapy Induced Peripheral Neuropathy, Chemotherapy, Neuralgia, Neuropathy Mechanisms, Peripheral Neuropathy Therapy.

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