DOI: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.2.17215/v1
Background Internship program is one of the experiential learning methods that enable students to gain practicum experience and learn from specialised people. This type of learning is a professional gateway to integrate knowledge with practical application. This study defines the state of health informatics internship programs in Saudi Arabia and examines the difference between interns and graduated students’ perceptions about the experience of health informatics internship programs in Saudi hospitals.
Methods An online survey was constructed and distributed to health informatics students through social media platforms and specialised groups. The sample size included 89 participants from different universities across Saudi Arabia regions.
Results The findings indicate that the majority of participants believe that internship programs have a positive impact on students’ skills and provide students with non-monetary incentives. ANOVA analysis and t-test results indicated that there is no significance difference between the interns and graduates perceptions (p-value 0.495, alpha value 0.005)
Conclusion Health informatics internship programs in the Kingdom should consider some aspects: the selection criteria of internship sites, the linkage between education outcomes and Saudi labour market needs, effective experiential learning methods, well-defined structure of health informatics internship program and competencies framework.
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