Strides in Development of Medical Education Journal
Year:2005 | Volume:2 | Issue:1|Papers Count:15

Background: Iran experienced a big jump in higher education in 1990s. In compatible with this jump, the number of Ph.D students was increased considerably, particularly those who were sponsored to study abroad. It is incredibly important to explore the issues around the study of these students, which its findings can be used for further planning.Objective: To assess the education duration of Iranian Ph.D students graduated from universities in UK and Irland between 1995 and 2001. Also, to compare the durations of studies of students in medical fields with that in other students.Methods: The data of Iranian Ph.D students were collected from the Deputy of Science in the Embassy of Iran in UK. In order to minimize the selection bias introduced by sensored data, only the information of students who started their studies before 1997 was analyzed.Results: Around 30% of students were sponsored by the Health Ministry of Iran to study in medical fields. In average, the durations of studies in students of medical fields was not statistically different with the durations in other students (42.5 months versus 42 months respectively, p=0.23). Less than 15% of students finished their studies within 3 years; however, it was around 10% greater in students of medical fields. The diversity of the durations of studies was greater in medical field students. The correlation coefficients between the duration of studies and age, the number of children, and English score of students in the beginning of their courses were 0.1, 0.02 and -0.17, respectively; the last two coefficients were not statistically significant. In addition, the students in large cities and in small towns finished their courses more or less with the same length.Conclusion: Most of students could not finish their studies within three years which is the duration of scholarship in Iran; therefore, it is suggested that the system revises its regulations. In addition, it is suggested that the scholarship system chooses younger students, because age had a positive association with the length of study.

Background: Tomorrow doctors or today students should be honest in all the aspects of academic work including conducting a research project and writing the thesis. Objective: This study was conducted to explore the prevalence of research fraud among medical students according to their subjective experiences and to clarify the attitudes of them towards the issue.Methods: A questionnaire which its reliability and validity were confirmed, was distributed among 104 interns. It consisted 7 items concerning major types of research fraud which were determined based upon an extensive literature review and a focus group discussion with interested medical students. They were asked about the prevalence of each type of the research misconducts and their prevalence among medical students.Results: The response rate was 100%. Fifty four percent of the repondents were female. Fabrication of data and falsification of the findings were reported to be as high as 37 and 40 percent, respectively. The subjectively estimated prevalence of plagiarism was between 25 to 50 percent. About 58 percent of them approved copying others' work whiled 71 percent of them disapproved unethical research behavior towards the patients.Conclusion: If the results could be generalized to the whole country they might be regarded as a major educational and ethical problem. The result warrant further research and concern about the mandatory research system and alternative approaches.

Background: Exact and objective evaluation of professional competency is one of the most important aspects in medical students' clinical education. Objective structural clinical exam (OSCE) evaluates a large spectrum of technical and basic skills in an experimental setting.Objective: To determine the satisfaction of medical stagers and interns in Kerman University of Medical Sciences on evaluation based on OSCE.Methods: All the medical students experienced the OSCE were selected as the population of this cross-sectional research. To gather the data, a researcher - made questionnaire with a proper validity and reliability was used.Results: The findings indicated the respondents having experienced OSCE totally got 76.4% of the total score of satisfaction, so they were satisfied with this evaluation method. The students agreed or completely agreed on 73.1% of the statements, and 13.9% selected disagreed or completely disagreed. Most of the students (93.8%) agreed on doing this method in other wards. A significant relationship (P<0.01) was observed between students' satisfaction and agreement on using this method in other educational groups but no difference was observed on other background variables.Conclusion: Since the student were satisfied with OSCE, it seems necessary to develop this evaluation method in all clinical groups.

Background: Investigation of the opinions of individuals involved in education (faculty and student) makes the assessment of the faculty, educational performance more valid and help us improve quality as an objective of evaluation. A method to decrease subjectivity in evaluation of teachers by student is self - assessment, especially when evaluation aims to find shortages & help to improve education.Objective: This survey is to compare the self - assessment of the faculty with student assessment about the faculty teaching method.Methods: To do this descriptive-analytical study, two questionnaires with ten questions in four categories designed in EDC were randomly distributed among 600 students and 160 faculty members teaching theory lessons. 1530 questionnaires were returned by students and 137 questionnaires by the faculty members. Data were analyzed using t and, Man-Whitney U tests and Spearman's, correlation confident.Results: The mean of self - assessment score of the faculty was more than mean of student evaluation score about their teachers (4.28±0.49 vs 3.39±0.51, P<0.0001). There was a significant although poor relationship between students and teachers assessment on evaluation by student (r= 0.25, P<0.05) and discipline (r = 0.25, P<0.05). But there was no significant relationship between teaching method and scientific level of the faculty (P> 0.5).Discussion: In this survey, the scores the faculty members considered for themselves were higher than the scores the students assigned to them and the faculties satisfaction on teaching methods and scientific performance is different from what the students considered. In this way presenting an appropriate evaluating system, using various methods of evaluation and giving proper feedback to the faculty is necessary.

Background: The rapidly expanding use of information technology (IT) in medicine and biomedicine has changed the medical education methods, So that information literacy, the ability to use computer, is an essential skill for students. Knowing about the computer literacy level of students and the level of their interest in learning information technology, help make the students to use computers and information technology better.Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the level of computer literacy amongst three classes of Kerman University's medical students. (Students accepted during 1998-2000).Methods: All students accepted during 1998-2000 (180 students) were studied in this cross -sectional research. The questionnaire was used before in similar research in America. Response rate was 74%. The internal consistency of the questionnaire was computed after the gathering and was 0.86.Results: 29.2 percent of the respondents were male and 70.8% were female. Most of them (65.6%) had personal computer, 20.8% of them had passed at least an educational class on hardware, 43.2% on software class, and 9.4% on system design and analysis before accepting to university.In total, the students got 56% of computer literacy score. The computer literacy of males was significantly higher than females (P<0.01). Conclusions: In order to increase the level of computer literacy among medical students, we would suggest formal inclusion of IT in undergraduate medical curriculum.

Background: Inappropriate nutrition has an important role in many pathological conditions, including such common diseases as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Despite the recognition that physicians are often called upon to provide counseling in nutritional aspects of diseases, nutrition does not hold the place it deserves in medical schools' curricula, especially in clinical and case-based teaching.Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of interns in Kerman Medical University regarding the nutrition.Methods: Self-administered questionnaires, including 29 questions and in a cross-sectional study were completed by 105 interns.Results: The mean knowledge, attitude and practice scores were 6.93±1.89 (out of 14), 15.50 ±3.54 (out of 40) and 1.48±1.58 (out of 7), respectively. There were no significant differences in knowledge and practice scores between males and females, but male interns had higher score in attitude (P<0.05). We detected a statistically significant positive correlation between knowledge and attitude (r=0.22, P=0.023), so that the higher knowledge level, the higher attitude score.A significant negative, relationship was observed between interns' attitudes and their practices (r=-0.33, p= 0.001). Despite good attitude concerning nutrition principles, their practice scores were undesirable.Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that there are serious defects in the knowledge of the interns concerning the principles of nutrition. Furthermore, their attitudes and practices about nutrition are undesirable. Considering the importance of proper nutrition for good health and treatment and prevention of disease, there is a need for improvement of nutritional knowledge. in future doctors. This requires careful planning and curricula changes to include the principles and practice of nutrition. In other words, nutrition needs to be re-evaluated and properly integrated into the medical school's curriculum.

Background: Teaching is a basic strategy in health promotion programs. Concerns on sexually transmitted diseases have dramatically grown in recent years. Teaching can be a proper strategy to prevent these diseases, because these diseases are often acquired through avoidable and changeable behavior.Objective: To compare the effect of two educational methods, lecture (using film and pamphlet) and poster, on students' knowledge and attitude about HIV/AIDS.Methods: This research was a quasi-experimental study. The sample consisted of 160 students, chosen using stratified - random sampling and divided into two equal groups of lecture and poster. A questionnaire including three sections with 54 questions (demographic information, knowledge and attitude) was completed by the subjects in two stages, before and after teaching. Independent and paired t-tests were used to analyze the data.Results: The findings indicated a significant difference between the pretest and posttest of knowledge scores in both teaching methods (P<0.0001). The mean of knowledge scores in lecture group improved from 35.18 to 75.7 and in poster group from 35.8 to 48.51. A Significant difference was observed between pre and post-test of the means of attitude scores for lecture (p<0.0001) and poster (p<0.001).The mean of attitude scores improved from 17.38 to 27.78 in the lecture group and from 15.36 to 18.68 in the poster group. Comparing the two methods, the results showed a significant difference in knowledge (P<0.0001) and attitude level in two groups (P<0.0001).Conclusion: Lecture teaching had more effect on improving knowledge and attitude of the students about HIV/AIDS. As a result, the effective and codified educational programs are proved as basic strategies to improve knowledge and attitude of the young about HIV/AIDS in order to prevent this disease.

Background: Teaching Methodology workshop aimed at development of education, therefore, it must offer the best developed methods of teaching.Objective: To determine the quality of the teaching methodology workshops held in Kerman University of Medical Sciences based on the views of the participators.Methods: The views of all 171 faculty members participated in six teaching methodology workshops were evaluated using the questionnaire approved by The Ministry of Health and Medical Education. The questionnaire consisted of two sections: demographic features and statements on the views based on a 5 Likert scale (from strongly agree to strongly disagree). Its validity was 0.9, measured by the views of experts.Results: 67.3 percent of the participators were male and assistant professors 62.6%. 69.5% of the participants were strongly agreed or agreed upon the statements. The most agreement was on "proper planning of aims" (84%), then "giving introductory information in the beginning" (81%), "sequential outline" (82%), respectively. The least agreement was found on "the facilities". (40.4%), "enough time allocated to individual and group discussion" (47.4%). A significant difference was observed between the views based on different workshop sessions (P<0.05) so that the evaluation results of the 5th and 6th workshops were better than the 1th and 2th results.Conclusion: the success of a workshop depends on planning and facilities to some extent. The teaching methodology workshops holding to improve teaching abilities should have acceptable characteristics to be efficient. According to the findings, the planning of the workshops was appropriate but facilities have to be improved. Designating more time to discussion and using more appropriate educational methods is also necessary.