Strides in Development of Medical Education Journal
Year:2011 | Volume:8 | Issue:2|Papers Count:16

Background & Objectives: Portfolios as new educational tools can play an important role in improving clinical competence of nurses.However, scientific evidences about the impact of portfolios on nurses' clinical competence are limited and few studies have been done in Iran. This study aimed to determine the impact of professional portfolio on nurses' clinical competence in a hospital affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences.Methods: In this quasi-experimental, pretest- intervention-posttest study, from 22 units of the selected hospital, 4 general units were selected randomly. Nurses of 2 units were studied as experimental group and participated in a 12-month portfolio-based Professional development program.Nurses of 2 other units were considered as control group and participated in the routine professional development programs of their units. Data were collected by a valid and reliable scale measuring clinical competence of nurses. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, independent and paired t-test.Results: After intervention, mean clinical competence in experimental group showed a significant increase from 76.72 (± 6.45) to 85.68 (±6.43) (p<0.001), while in the control group this increase 75.31 (± 11.9) to 80.69 (± 7.11) was not significant (p=0.08).Conclusion: This study showed that portfolio is an effective tool for improving nurses’ clinical competence. Studying about the efficacy of these tools in nursing practice in order to enhance nursing professional development is necessary.

Introduction: Professors have important responsibilities in education and training of students, among them advising students for overcoming some preventable problems leading to educational failure is of a great importance. This study was performed with the purpose of surveying the viewpoints of students in Yazd University of Medical Sciences on the process of selecting supervisor professors and the scope of advisers’ duties and assigning supervised students.Methods: This descriptive study was performed on 385 students in Yazd University of Medical Sciences selected by random stratified sampling. Data were collected through a questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS software. Statistical significant level was considered as p<0.05.Results: The most important item in selecting the adviser for each student was having common academic field (40.3%). In assigning students for each adviser smaller number of students was mentioned as the most important item (53%). Most of the subjects (48.8%) agreed with selection of adviser by head of faculty and selection of supervised students by the adviser him/herself. Attention to the academic statue of students and solving educational problems of students were major duties of advisers according to the majority of students (96.4%).Conclusion: According to the results, it is suggested that advisers be selected by head of faculties and attention to having common field of study with the supervised student, the adviser’s own opinion and assigning smaller number of students for each adviser is highly necessary.

Background and Objectives: Rapid development of information and communication technology and increasing rate of using electronic media have influenced peoples’ studying behaviors and change of studying behaviors toward studying in digital environments has become a controversial issue. In regard to the variety of theories about the efficacy of digital and printed sources in learning process, the present study was performed to survey the opinions of students in Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences about studying in digital and printed environments.Methods: In this cross-sectional study, studying behaviors of 368 students in Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences in printed and digital environments were surveyed through a researcher-made questionnaire. Sampling was done by stratified random method and based on the number of students in each faculty and field of study. The inclusion criterion was using digital sources for at least one academic semester. Data analysis was performed by using descriptive statistics, X2 and Fisher Exact tests. Statistical significant level was considered as p<0/05.Results: Fifty percent of the subjects preferred printed and 26/9% preferred digital sources for studying.According to the students, studying in printed environments has the benefits of continuous concentration (71.7%), deeper concentration (72.8%), better comprehension (60.2%), more profound comprehension (78.2%), more convenient note taking (71.7%) and highlighting (72.2%) and longer studying hours (71.4%), while electronic environments provide access to up-to-date information in a more convenient (75.6%), cost-effective (51.4%) and rapid (67.9%) ways.Conclusion: Further studies in order to design more efficient digital libraries and training students for better use of digital environments leading to continuous comprehension are necessary.

Background & Objective: In order to achieve an efficient teaching, in all fields including Medicine, effective teachers are needed and to evaluate the efficiency of teachers, students’ comments are a remarkable indicator. Since during the recent decades, Emotional Intelligence has been mentioned as one of the characteristics of distinguished teachers, this study aimed to investigate the emotional intelligence and its components among professors of basic sciences level of Medicine field selected as distinguished teachers by senior students in comparison to other professors in this level.Methods: In this descriptive study, all Medicine students of the selected university in the final semester of basic sciences phase (n=65) were asked to name their five top distinguished teachers.Finally 8 teachers who had the highest votes were considered as the distinguished group. To assess teachers’ emotional intelligence, the standard questionnaire of Bar-On is distributed among all teachers of basic sciences (53 cases), and their emotional intelligence in 15 different components was evaluated. Data were analyzed through SPSS software and by using correlation and independent t-test.Results: Mean total score of Emotional Intelligence of distinguished teachers (352.13) was higher compared to that of the other teachers (337.88) but the difference was not significant. The scores of distinguished group in the subscales of happiness, optimism, self-confidence and flexibility were significantly higher compared to the other teachers (P< 0.05).Conclusion: It seems that, factors like happiness, optimism, self-confidence and flexibility cause teachers to teach more efficiently and make teaching-learning process more satisfying for students. Therefore, it is recommended to pay special attention to these aspects of emotional intelligence in teachers’ training programs.

Background & Objectives: European Foundation for Quality Management Model is a management structure based on fundamental principles and concepts and attention to the main criteria of total quality management and self- assessment systems. This model causes progress and improvement and is also a tool for measuring the amount of establishment of systems in organizations and self- assessment as well as a guide to identify and determine the path of managers' performance for improvement. This research aimed to investigate the feasibility of implementing criteria of European foundation for Quality Management Model in libraries of Tehran Universities of Medical Sciences based on demographic factors.Method: This is an applied descriptive study performed in survey form. Study population consisted of managers and librarians in three Medical universities of Tehran (n=135) in 2010. Data were collected by a researcher-made questionnaire. The reliability (Cronbach’s Alpha=0.97%) and content validity of the questionnaire was approved. Data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics.Results: There was a significant difference among the ideas of staff in Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences about the feasibility of implementing criteria of European foundation for Quality Management Model based on sex, position, field of study and educational degree.Conclusion: There was a significant difference between the two sexes in variables of coopration and processes. There was a significant difference between the opinions of managers and librarians, but no significant difference was found based on the educational level. Finally, there was significant difference among respondents’opinions in all five variables of results based on educational degree.

Background & Objective: Education and improvement of human resources is a kind of investment in organizations and have a key role in improving their performance and productivity. This study was conducted to determine the rate of managerial trainings among managers and chief experts in health deputies of Iran Medical Sciences Universities and its relation to demographic and institutional factors.Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in spring 2011. Sample population was managers and experts of Health Deputies of Medical Sciences Universities in Iran. Thirteen universities were selected by random systematic and stratified sampling and their managers and chief experts were interviewed by using a questionnaire consisted of demographic and organizational variables as well as 40 management-related topics.Results: A total of 293 managers and chief experts were studied. Among 40 studied management topics, only in 8 topics over than 40% had been trained and in 32 remained topics the rate of trained individuals varied from 1% to 40%. The rate of education showed significant relationship with the grade of university and subjects’ sex, age, work experience, educational level and field, taking MPH courses and current work location and position (p<0.05). The grade of university (77.5%) and work experience (12.5%) had respectively the highest and lowest relationships with the rate of education.Conclusion: Low rate of managerial and general trainings among managers and chief experts requires designing and implementing more educational programs.

Background & Objectives: In the world of information technology, tendency toward using electronic learning as a novel learning style is increasing. The contribution to electronic learning is dependent on the knowledge and attitude of faculty members toward this issue. The aim of this study was to find the knowledge and attitude of faculty members in Guilan University of Medical Sciences toward electronic learning.Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study by using census sampling all faculty members in Guilan University of Medical Sciences were studied of whom 220 ones eventually responded to the questionnaire. Data collection instrument was a questionnaire consisted of 4 sections of demographic features (5 questions), computer knowledge (6 questions), attitude-testing items (10 questions based on Likert scale) and questions related to the facilities (8 yes/no questions), Competency (9 questions). Content validity and reliability were determined by a-cronbach. Data analysis was performed by SPSS 16 software package.Results: The majority of respondents had sufficient knowledge (68.3%) and positive attitude (89.4%). From all, 69.5% asserted that they have the required computer skills, but 95% said that they do not have enough facilities in home and university for using electronic sources.Conclusion: Positive attitude of faculty members toward electronic learning requires implementation of continuous education programs for faculty members in order to improve their knowledge about information technology and up-to-date electronic learning skills.

Background and Objectives: Emotional intelligence (EI) is a social intelligence identifying the ability of an individual to understand others’ emotions, establish sympathy with others and adjust his emotions with others. In fact, EI enables individuals to have a proper understanding of their own and others’ emotions and use it in their human relationships effectively. The purpose of this study was to determine mean of emotional intelligence in stager medical students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences and its relationship with their academic achievement.Methods: In this analytic-descriptive study, a total of 70 stager medical students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2007-2008 were selected and their EI was determined by using a standard questionnaire (a-cronbach=0.937) consisted of 90 questions. Moreover, the relationship between EI and variables of age, sex, student’s rank in the university entrance exam, grade point average and satisfaction of the field of study was determined. Data analysis was done through SPSS 16 software package.Results: Mean EI of the subjects in all 15 domains of the questionnaire were lower than the standard values. Minimum score belonged to the interpersonal relationships and maximum score belonged to the good-view. None of the studied variables showed significant relationship with emotional intelligence (p>0.05).Conclusion: The results of this study emphasize on the necessity of more educational planning for increasing emotional intelligence of stager medical students during their educational period. In this way they can achieve better academic achievement and do their internship responsibilities more efficiently. However, lack of enough information about emotional intelligence requires further studies.

Background & objective: Self directed learning is increasingly used in dentistry and medical programs in order to improve students’ lifelong learning skills. Since there are a limited number of studies about self directed learning in Iran, any research on students' readiness for self-directed learning seems necessary. This study was aimed to explore Medical and Dentistry students' perceptions of self directed learning and its relationship with students’ personal traits (age, gender, high school and university grade point averages and score of basic sciences program).Methods: In this descriptive-correlation study, 81 extern intern completed the standard self directed learning scale consisted of 40 items in 3 subscales. Students’ scores in the applied scale and basic sciences program together with the average and mean of all past terms scores were considered as indices for academic achievement. One way ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient, multiple regression were used for analyzing data.Results: Self-directed learning readiness showed a significant relationship with students’ grade point average, but a negative relationship with basic sciences score (p<0/0001). In addition there was no significant difference between Self-directed learning readiness scores and demographic features (p<0.05).Conclusion: According to the obtained results, students’ readiness for self directed learning can be predicted based on their basic sciences score and grade point average.

Background & Objectives: Even so much of the knowledge and skills of medical students is aquiered during clinical course, in many educational systems, students are kept away from clinical setting during their first academic years.Methods: This study was an interventional study carried out by Educational Development Office in the school of Medicine in 2009. All Second semester students were selected through census method. Students' attitudes towards medical profession were evaluated using a questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire confirmed by a number of experts and its reliability was determined using Cronbach's Alpha 0.65. Early clinical exposure course was held for subjects and within two weeks after the course, they were asked to complete the questionnaire again. Each question was rated using Likert scale and mean scores of each student before and after the intervention were calculated and compared by using paired t-test.Results: From 85 students, 62 ones completed the questionnaire before and after the course. From all 36 ones (58%) were female and 26 ones (42 %) were male. Mean age of students was 19.12 (±0.73) years and their mean average of the first semester was 16.24 (±1.1). There was no significant difference between the students' attitude toward medical profession before and after the course.Conclusion: Although the present study couldn't detect significant change in students' attitude toward medical profession, the results of other studies show that early clinical exposure provides an opportunity for the students to learn subjects practically and beyond mere theory.

Background & Objectives: A proper and effective consultation requires using efficient communication skills during the consultation process. The aim of this research was to determine communication skills of undergraduate students’ advisors in Kerman University of Medical Sciences Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed from March 2010 to August 2010. Study population included undergraduate students of four colleges of whom 379 students were selected by stratified sampling. A self-designed 17-item questionnaire was used to collect data. Questions were designed based on different communication skills of advisors and modified by getting the opinions of 8 experts in the field. Validity was approved by test-retest and data were analyzed by using descriptive and analytic statistics and through SPSS software.Results: Mean scores of oral and written communication skills, providing feedback, understanding others, being a good listener and the ability to influence others were 54.6%, 50.95%, 55.62%, 57.76%, 58.35% and 55.49% respectively.Conclusion: Considering the importance of communication skills in the success of an appropriate counseling, improving advisors’ communication skills is essential and it is necessary to consider different aspects of communication skills such as oral and written communication skills, providing feedback, Understanding others, being a good listener and the ability to influence others.

Background and objectives: It is believed that any discrepancy between learning style of students and their field of study leads to their dissatisfaction and consequently dropping out of school. The aim of this study was to compare the learning styles of Nursing students in Kerman Razi Nursing School in 2009.Methods: In this cross-sectional study performed in 2009, all undergraduate and postgraduate Nursing students of Razi Nursing School (n=148) were asked to complete Kolb learning style inventory (KLSI) Version 3.1. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics.Results: From all students, 87.8% were studying in undergraduate and 12.2% in master programs. Among undergraduate students assimilator learning style (48.5%) and among master students convergent learning styles (44.4%) had the highest frequencies. There was a statistically significant difference between learning styles of undergraduate and master students (P=0.028).Conclusion: Since, nursing is an occupation requiring interaction and communication with people, attention of nursing teachers to the learning styles of their students is very essential for promotion of community health. It is suggested that nursing teachers use a variety of teaching methods based on students’ educational level and preferred learning style.