Oman, What a Challenge!

Imagine you were put in charge of a country of 2 million inhabitants, most of whom were illiterate, and you were given what seemed to be incredible riches, how would you start to spend the money? This situation was faced by the present Sultan Qaboos of Oman about twenty years ago and the achievements of the sultanate in the ensuing twenty years have been incredible. The level of literacy has improved dramatically. All children are entitled to free education and there are now about fifty Omani students about to enter their first clinical year in their own medical school at Sultan Qaboos University. I recently spent a week in that medical school observing what is their equivalent of 2nd MB. Oman is situated along the southeast edge of Arabia and forms the southern land mass of the Straits of Hormuz. It is a Muslim country but considerably more liberal than most others in Arabia. With the oil riches there has been the development of a good road system, a modern airport, fine hospitals and four years ago the formation of the magnificent Sultan Qaboos University. This, in which the medical school is situated, is a few miles away from Muscat, the old walled city and harbour of northern Oman. The country is very 'pro-British'?even the clock tower of the university chimes the identical tones of Big Ben on the hour! There are roughly equal numbers of male and female medical students and they are taught together?but sit on either side of the room. There are going to be difficult problems ahead for the students who are thoroughly instilled with cultural taboos about touching people of the opposite sex. The problems that will be faced by clinical teachers will be great. My first major gaffe was offering to shake the hand of a fourth year female student. She wrapped her hand in her shawl before accepting my greeting! Students are taught in English and the medical school is staffed by teachers of many nationalities. Many are British but there is also a strong Scandinavian contingent. The Dean is a Canadian psychiatrist and the professor of Child Health is the Omani minister of health. The medical school has a strong community based curriculum. The aim is clearly to try to encourage the development of generalists who will, in the future, staff rural clinical and peripheral hospitals. Medical students, many of whom originate …