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Copyright of Scientific Journal of King Faisal University, Humanities & Management Sciences is the property of Association of Arab Universities and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Backgrounds: The principal instructional leadership describes how school principals oversee the curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The main aims of the current study were translation and evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Principal Instructional Leadership Scale (PILS) in a Saudi Arabian population., Methods: The translation and cross-cultural adaptation process has been conducted in five stages, including forward translation, translation synthesis, backward translation, expert committee, and pilot testing. Face, content, construct, and convergent validity were used to establish validity. Cronbach's alpha coefficient and McDonald's omega (Ω) were used for internal consistency., Results: To validate the PILS structure, the total sample (N = 724) was randomly split into two subgroups, each comprising 362 individuals, for Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Five factors obtained from EFA explain 71.07 % of the variance in PILS. The PILS encompasses domains of improving curriculum quality, teaching, and enhancing the effectiveness of adaptive learning, adding to the dimensions covered by previous instructional leadership measures. The five components show strong internal consistency (0.93 to 0.97). Both first-order and second-order CFAs confirmed the 5-factor model, meeting criteria (CFI > 0.91, GFI > 0.9, IFI > 0.9, RMSEA<0.05). All 21 items displayed suitable internal consistency (Cronbach's α > 0.8, McDonald's omega >0.7). Second-order average variance extracted validity (0.50) indicated PILS validity. Gender invariance analysis revealed no significant differences (∆CFI < 0.01, ΔRMSEA<0.01) in PILS structure between genders., Conclusion: The reliability and validity of the Arabic rendition of PILS are commendable, making it suitable for evaluating principal instructional leadership in Saudi Arabia., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The author declares that she has no competing financial interests or known personal relationships that would appear to influence the work reported in this article., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: Many differences exist in postgraduate surgical training programmes worldwide. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of the training requirements in general surgery across 23 different countries., Methods: A collaborator affiliated with each country collected data from the country's official training body website, where possible. The information collected included: management, teaching, academic and operative competencies, mandatory courses, years of postgraduate training (inclusive of intern years), working-hours regulations, selection process into training and formal examination., Results: Countries included were Australia, Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, India, Ireland, Italy, Kuwait, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA and Zambia. Frameworks for defining the outcomes of surgical training have been defined nationally in some countries, with some similarities to those in the UK and Ireland. However, some training programmes remain heterogeneous with regional variation, including those in many European countries. Some countries outline minimum operative case requirement (range 60-1600), mandatory courses, or operative, academic or management competencies. The length of postgraduate training ranges from 4 to 10 years. The maximum hours worked per week ranges from 38 to 88 h, but with no limit in some countries., Conclusion: Countries have specific and often differing requirements of their medical profession. Equivalence in training is granted on political agreements, not healthcare need or competencies acquired during training., (© 2020 The Authors. BJS Open published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Journal of Surgery Society.)

Objective: To determine the effect of different enabling factors such as curriculum, role of faculty, academic advising and availability of learning resources and supportive services on the performance of students pursuing their Bachelor's degree in dentistry., Methods: Data was collected from the male and female students of the College of Dentistry, King Saud University, during the academic year 2008-2009. All undergraduate students (576) constituted the total sample size of the study. The respondents were requested to fill a questionnaire form, which was specially designed in accordance with requirements of the Association for Dental Education in Europe (ADEE). The questionnaire comprised 45 questions addressing all aspects of the relevant factors. The five-point Likert scale was used to evaluate the feedback. All the responses (239) were thoroughly examined and only the completely filled forms (169) were subjected to regression analyses, taking student's CGPA as a dependent factor and a depiction of their performance. The t-tests were also worked out to evaluate variations in the responses of male and female students to each sub-factor., Results: The study showed a significant impact of faculty and learning resources and support services on a student's achievement (alpha = 0.05). Surprisingly, academic advising and the dental curriculum had non-significant effect at 95% level of confidence. However, the critical analyses acknowledged that the non-significant impact was due to poor performance of the two factors., Conclusion: The role of faculty and learning resources as well as of support services had significant effect on students' performance. However, there is an immense need to improve the level of academic advising and revise the curriculum to have a significant impact of these factors on the student's achievements.

The study tested the knowledge of internal medicine residents in recognizing the types and demonstrating the ways of using 6 different inhalers. Of the residents 61%, 49%, 78% and 90% were unable to recognize commonly used devices (a metered dose inhaler, Turbuhaler, Diskus and Diskhaler respectively), while 24%, 53%, 81% and 93% were unable to demonstrate the correct the ways of using them. None of the residents (0%) were able to recognize or to demonstrate the use of Rotahaler and Aerolizer correctly. None of them had received any formal education about the use of the inhalers during their training, while only 2% had attended sessions with medical educators.

Critical Care Medicine is a well-established specialty in developed countries. Medical students have exposure to it at undergraduate level and it is an independent subspecialty at postgraduate level. However, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Critical Care Medicine is minimally taught under other subject headings in Surgery, Internal Medicine or Anesthesia. This article discusses the need for the inclusion of Critical Care Medicine in the undergraduate curriculum for better integration of basic and clinical sciences on one hand and improvement of the student's base of knowledge and quality of patient care on the other.