Strides in Development of Medical Education Journal
Year:2006 | Volume:3 | Issue:1|Papers Count:10

Background: It seems that in our country choosing medicine as the field of study in university is mostly due to family and society pressures rather than the applicant's real interest in this field.Objective: To determine medical students' motives for choosing medicine and their outlooks for this profession by using two qualitative and quantitative approaches.Methods: The qualitative part includes two focus group discussions with interns, and one focus group discussion with fresh students. In the quantitative part, complementary to the qualitative section, the causes of choosing medicine field and the rate of students' and applicants' awareness toward the future statue of their profession were studied. For this purpose, 33 fresh students, 107 interns, and 88 applicants of medicine field after taking the entrance examination were selected through convenient and consecutive sampling and were asked to complete the designated questionnaire.Results: In the qualitative part, everybody agreed that the applicants' own preference is not determining, and almost all of the students mentioned the social prestige of a physician and medical field as the main cause of choosing this field. In the quantitative part, interest in the scientific content of this field (in 42%), the role of physician in health improvement (in 21%), financial income (in 14.3%), the social prestige of physician (in 13%) and the pressure of family and society (in 1%) were mentioned as the main causes of choosing medicine field. On the other hand, participants in the qualitative part of the study didn't have a good outlook for the professional status of general practitioners and some of them believed that continuing studies in medicine field is more difficult than other fields. In the quantitative part of study, as the age of participants increased they more asserted that in medical field the possibility of continuing studies, finding job in good area, and with good income is less compared with other fields.Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that many students have not adequate awareness toward the medicine field and in choosing this field they are mostly under the influence of factors such as the pressure of family and the social prestige of the physicians. Although these aspects were not obvious in the quantitative part of the study, they were confirmed by all of the participants in the qualitative section of the study. This fact denotes the importance of qualitative approaches or the combination of qualitative and quantitative designs. On the other hand, since with increase in the age of students their awareness toward the future statue of their field improves, it is suggested that admission is not confined to academic criteria and appropriate meta-cognitive characteristics of applicants are also considered in admitting the students.

Background: Clinical education environment is a place for improving clinical skills of nursing student and preparing them for working in the hospital. Studies have shown that students expectation of their clinical education environment, is different from what exists in reality. That is, they are always looking for a better learning environment. Therefore, finding any factor affecting clinical learning is essential in planning clinical education programs. Objectives: To compare nursing students' and their instructors' viewpoints about clinical education environment.Methods: In this descriptive study, 119 nursing students and 14 instructors in Islamic University of Yazd were randomly selected. Data gathering tool was a two-part questionnaire. The first part included demographic features and the second part included items for viewpoint assessment. This part contained items about "the relationship between students and their instructors", "the presence of learning opportunities in hospital", "support of students by instructors" and "hospital facilities".Results: Clinical education environment was poor according to 11%, moderate according to 77% and good according to 12% of the students, while it was evaluated as being moderate by 50% and good by 50% of the instructors and there was significant statistical difference between the two groups in their viewpoints about clinical education environment.(p=0.001). In addition to the total score, in three domains "instructor-student relationship", "learning opportunities" and support of students by instructor" had better viewpoints comparing to the students (p=0.001).Conclusion: The differences between instructors' and nursing students' viewpoints about the condition of clinical education environment is important and identifying these differences, can help recognizing key problems of clinical education environment.

Background: Considering the importance of educational processes in our universities, evaluation of academic members in order to improve their teaching quality is highly necessary. In Education Development Center of Ahvaz University of Medical Sciences, evaluation of academic members by students is performed annually through questionnaires and the results are reflected to the teachers.Objective: To determine the opinions of teachers about the effective factors on variations of their evaluation score during the academic year of 2003-2004 in comparison to the previous year.Methods: In this descriptive study a researcher-made questionnaire was prepared and distributed among 130 non- clinical academic members of whom 72% filled and returned the questionnaires. Data were analyzed by computing frequency, percentage and Chi-square test. Results: About half of the teachers (52.3%) gained a higher evaluation score in comparison to the previous year and they believed that the most important factors causing this increase have been respectively more proficiency in educational program content (46%), considering students' program level (26%), knowing the results of previous evaluation (23%), participating in medical education workshops (75%), improvement of educational facilities (71%) and alteration in social behavior (68%). Among all teachers, 37.4% gained a lower score comparing to the previous year and according to them frequent holidays during the academic semester (49%), type of course and its nature (37%) and students dishonesty in evaluating teachers (34%) had been the most important factors affecting decrease in their evaluation score, while inappropriate class time (91%) had not been effective in this regard.Conclusion: In order to improve the quality of educational programs, considering academic members' suggestions and trying to resolve educational problems are highly recommended.

Background: Every one has a preferred style of learning. Although teachers should adapt their teaching method with their students' learning styles, it seems that in most cases this fact is disregarded which in turn may decrease the quality of teaching and consequently educational goals. Objective: To determine the learning styles of paramedical students in Kashan University of Medical Sciences.Methods: In this descriptive- analytical study, 130 nursing, midwifery and allied health students were investigated. For data collection a standardized questionnaire according to Joy Ried model was used. The questionnaire consisted of 30 questions in six learning domains of visual, tactile, auditory, group learning, individual learning and class participation and was justified by Likert scoring scale.Results: From 130 participants, 32.3% were male and 67.7% were female and 45.4% were nursing students, 40% were health students and 14.6%were midwifery students. Minimum mean score (29.2) and maximum mean score (38.7) were respectively related to group learning and class participation. There was no significant difference in learning style scores based on sex and field of study.Conclusion: Considering the obtained results showing the variety of learning styles and their differences, all teachers are advised to avoid limiting their teaching method to just one method and to use various techniques compatible with the type of teaching materials.

Background: One of the priorities of research in education is study about the causes of students failure during their academic work.Objective: To investigate the causes of students' academic failure and probation.Methods: In this case-control study, 761 volunteer students in Hamadan University of Medical Sciences' during fall and spring semesters of 200l-2002 were participated. Students were divided into two groups. Case group consisted of 43 students who had academic failure leading to their probation and control group consisted of 718 students who were successful in their study program. Data collection was done by a questionnaire designed based on eight main factors in learning process including: method of teaching, evaluation, educational materials, planning for the semester courses, personal characteristics, environmental problems, academic environment, and accessibility of academic advisors. The questionnaire was used after reliability and validity evaluation.Results: The percentage of academic probation was higher in boys (9.4%) compared to girls (4.3%). Among eight factors affecting learning process, there was a significant difference (P= 0.014) between the two groups in their mean score of opinions about the method of teaching (3.56 x 1.16 in the case group vs. 3.59x 0.98 in the control group). There was also significant difference between the two groups in regard to mean score of the personal characteristics (4.36 x 1.26 in case group vs. 4.76 xl.08 in control group, P= 0.023). The obtained mean scores for method of teaching and personal characteristics of the students was significantly higher according to the students who had a score below 10 for at least 1 course. Mean scores of method of teaching and environmental & educational problems were significantly higher according to the students who had a score between 10-12 in at least one course (P<0.05).Conclusion: In conclusion, the factors such as instructors' teaching method, students' personal characteristics and their living conditions, sex and high school grade point average have significant effects on academic failure and probation. Attention to these factors in planning educational programs has a critical role on decreasing the rate of students' academic probation and failure.

Background: Practical training of medical students is not limited to only hospitals. Outpatient departments and ambulatory care centers attending a greater number of patients can provide students with more exposure to a variety of medical cases. Moreover, community-oriented medical education centre, where more patients come for consultation is a suitable centre for training medical students. Although awareness toward the importance of community-oriented medical education is increasing, and medical faculties have already adopted this approach for their training, this idea does not appear to be accepted fully in all of schools.Objective: To find the attitude of Zanjan Medical students and teachers towards education and facilities in COME centre in 2004-2005.Methods: In this descriptive study two separate questionnaires for teachers and students were designed to assess their attitudes towards the method of education, number of patients, situation of centre and the quality of education in the Community-oriented Medical Education centers. The questionnaires were filled out by 136 interns and externs' who had been trained in COME centre and 14 teachers in Zanjan Medical University. Validity of questionnaires had been confirmed and internal consistency reliability had been determined by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.79). Results: In whole, 66.9% of the students and 53.8% of the teachers were interested in attending COME program and most of them believed that COME is necessary for medical education. The percentage of interns who agreed with this center was more than externs. In regard to the teachers' educational method the highest satisfaction rate (83.2%) was obtained for teachers in the pediatrics ward (p=0.0005). In regard to the number and variety of patients, pediatrics ward (with respectively 71.7% and 65.6%) was the best and internal ward (with respectively 20.7% and 21.5%) was the worst ward according to the students. The overall satisfaction rate was 51.9±12.5 in students and interns had a more positive attitude comparing to others. Discussion: It. seems that using more experienced teachers, continuous supervision and evaluation of educational activities, establishing proper research facilities and financial support of COME centers are necessary for improving community-oriented medical education.

Background: Training Patients is one of the fundamental principles of nursing profession.Nurses have to do this training task in order to provide patient's satisfaction, speed up patient's recovery and reduce rate of readmission.Objective: To determine training performance of nurses working in Kerman University of Medical Sciences from the point of view patients discharging from Medical - Surgical wards in 2006.Methods: In this descriptive analytic study, the sample size base on a pilot study was determined 396 patients and subjects were selected consecutively. A researcher - made questionnaire was used to collect data. The questionnaire included two parts of demographic features and evaluating training performance of nurses in 6 domains. Data were analyzed by using central and distributional indices and Mann - Withny U, kruskal Wallis, Freedman tests and Spearman coefficient correlation.Results: According to the results, the majority of samples were males (62/1%), married (66/4), over 50 years of age (30/55%), illiterate (30.55%) and with no history of previous hospitalization (40/7%). In regard to the performance of nurses in training patients, the results showed that in the domains of disease nature 19%, disease complications 23%, medicines 43%, physical activity 32.07%, nutrition 42.8% and other items 41.3% had received complete or relative training.considering nurses' total training performance score based on demographic features of patients, significant differences were observed in terms of sex, hospital and educational level (P < 0/05). That is, nurses' training performance score was higher from the point of view of female patients, patients with higher educational levels and patients in hospital C comparing to male patients, patients with lower educational levels and patients in hospitals other than hospital C. Conclusion: The obtained percentages for nurses' performance in training patients show their poor performance in this regard. Therefore, improving nurses' knowledge about the importance of training patients is highly recommended.

Background: The aim of continuous medical education is to improve physicians' performance. Unfortunately, most of the efforts which have been done in recent years for achieving this goal have been ineffective. Using ineffective educational methods and techniques are probably the major cause of this deficiency.Consumer-based models such as social marketing model can be used efficiently in the field of medical education. Social marketing is "the use of commercial marketing concepts and tools in programs designed to influence individual's behavior to improve their well being and that of the society". In this paper the main concepts and principles of social marketing model have been explained. Consumer analysis, market analysis, and channel analysis are the main concepts of social marketing that can be used in the field of continuous medical education.Conclusion: Although planning educational programs based on the mentioned principles seems to impose more expenses, it increases the probability of success and can affect physicians' behavior more than other applied programs.