Medicine and Pharmacy Students' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice regarding Artificial Intelligence Programs: Jordan and West Bank of Palestine

Rami Mosleh; Qais Jarrar; Yazun Jarrar; Mariam Tazkarji; Mohammed Hawash

doi:10.2147/AMEP.S433255

Medicine and Pharmacy Students' Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practice regarding Artificial Intelligence Programs: Jordan and West Bank of Palestine

Adv Med Educ Pract. 2023 Dec 13:14:1391-1400. doi: 10.2147/AMEP.S433255. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Rami Mosleh¹, Qais Jarrar², Yazun Jarrar³, Mariam Tazkarji⁴, Mohammed Hawash¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine.
² Department of Pharmaceutical sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy, Isra University, Amman, Jordan.
³ Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Al-Balqa Applied University, Al-Salt, Jordan.
⁴ Faculty of Science, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

Abstract

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) programs generate responses to input text, showcasing their innovative capabilities in education and demonstrating various potential benefits, particularly in the field of medical education. The current knowledge of health profession students about AI programs has still not been assessed in Jordan and the West Bank of Palestine (WBP).

Aim: This study aimed to assess students' awareness and practice of AI programs in medicine and pharmacy in Jordan and the WBP.

Methods: This study was in the form of an observational, cross-sectional survey. A questionnaire was electronically distributed among students of medicine and pharmacy at An-Najah National University (WBP), Al-Isra University (Jordan), and Al-Balqa Applied University (Jordan). The questionnaire consisted of three main categories: sociodemographic characteristics of the participants, practice of AI programs, and perceptions of AI programs, including ChatGPT.

Results: A total of 321 students responded to the distributed questionnaire, and 261 participants (81.3%) stated that they had heard about AI programs. In addition, 135 participants had used AI programs before (42.1%), while less than half the participants used them in their university studies (44.2%): for drug information (44.5%), homework (38.9%), and writing research articles (39.3%). There was significantly (48.3%, P<0.005) more conviction in the use of AI programs for writing research articles among pharmacy students from Palestine compared to Jordan. Lastly, there was significantly more (53.8%, P<0.05) AI program use among medicine students than pharmacy students.

Conclusion: While most medicine and pharmacy students had heard about AI programs, only a small proportion of the participants had used them in their medical study. In addition, attitudes and practice related to AI programs in their education differs between medicine and pharmacy students and between WBP and Jordan.

Keywords: Jordan; West Bank of Palestine; artificial intelligence; education; medical students.