Exploring time management skills of first year undergraduate medical and allied health science students

Introduction: Time management skills are considered as very important for health science students as they are required to do multitasking, acquire not only discipline based knowledge and skills, but also engage in other academic activities and research as well. Aim: The present study explored and compared time management skills of first year undergraduate medical students and allied health science students. Materials and Methods: The present study was conducted on first year undergraduate medical student at Melaka Manipal Medical College (MMMC) and allied health science student at School Of Allied Health Science (SOAHS), MAHE, Manipal. Data was collected from the study sample (n=303) using a pre-developed questionnaire in which students indicated their responses on a 5-point Likert’s scale. The questionnaire had 27 items grouped into three domains: Time Planning (TP; 16 items), Time Attitude (TA; 7 items) and Time Wasters (TW; 4 items). The total mean scores of all items, as well as domains were compared between the students using independent sample t-test. Results: Analysis of the data revealed that there was no statistical difference between the total mean scores of both groups (MMMC: 3.2 (0.51); SOAHS: 3.2 (0.39), p-value >0.9). Comparison of mean score value of domains between the groups indicated similar and the statistically insignificant values for TP and TA domains for both groups whereas a high, however statistically insignificant mean score for TW, for SOAHS students compared to MMMC students. Ten and nine items had a mean score value below 3, for SOAHS and MMMC students respectively, out of which five items were common for both groups (TP3, TP4, TA2, TA6, TW4). Conclusion: The present study revealed that time management skills of both medical and allied health science students were moderate and almost similar.