Journal of Medical Education for Future Demands
Year:2021 | Volume:20 | Issue:1|Papers Count:8

Medical futility is one of the mostcommoncontroversial topics in medicine, medical ethics, and philosophy of medicine. Every day, doctors are dealing with patients who are in a condition that must have a decision about requested futile treatment with their own beliefs, opinions, and different demands. This is an important issue that must be taught during teaching courses. Therefore, it is good to provide general policies for teaching how to make the best decision, establishing better communication between doctors and patients, and maintaining their Autonomy. On the other hand, with the interference and expansion of humanistic and holistic attitudes in the treatment of patients, it must be considered that at all treatment levels, especially decisions related to end-of-life, it is better to involve this point of view in our policies. In the present article, we tried to give a general conclusion of general policy and present standards for a humanistic policy by analyzing various countries’ policies and expressing their bugs.

Context: Student assessment is an essential part of higher education. Many different technology-based assessment methods have been formed with the increasing development of IT and its introduction into the education system. Online take-home exams are computer-based exams in which the examinees can take at a place of their own choice and on their own computers. Despite its benefits, this method is faced with certain problems. The present study investigates the challenges in holding take-home computerbased exams in medical sciences and various solutions proposed to use this method more extensively in Iran in situations of crisis. Evidence Acquisition: The present review article was drafted upon a search conducted in Scopus, Google Scholar, and Google’ s general search engine using the following keywords and search strategies: "Take-home exam", OR "Take-home assessment", OR, "Online exam", OR "Online assessment", AND "Higher education". The content of the related documents published from 2009 to 2020, including articles, books, and web pages, was selected and assessed, and 35 articles were finally used to accomplish the study objectives. Results: Online take-home exams have many advantages, including reduced human errors, rapid scoring, and reduced stress on the examinees. Nonetheless, one of the limitations of this examination method is that the examinees may not meet all the criteria required for takingexamsathome. The obvious risk is students’ unethical conductandcheating, whichcomposesa major challenge of this examination modality. Conclusions: The reliability and correctness of exams can be improved using combination techniques, question banks, and giving random equivalent questions to each candidate that are not necessarily similar, and also mixing up the questions and their answers, which can provide a tool for preventing or limiting cheating. Online monitoring systems are also one of the strategies proposed for ongoing monitoring of online exams by an invigilator that are generally developed through artificial intelligence.

Background: Exams are an inseparable part of education, and they are the main tool to evaluate the results of educational process. If based on scientific rules, exams can show the level of achievement to educational goals. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the quality of orthodontic exams in Shahid Beheshti Dental School, Iran. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the quality of all written and multiple-choice questions (MCQ) exams of orthodontic departmentin 2014-2015 were evaluated in terms of content validity, structural rules, discrimination index, difficulty index, andtaxonomy. To collect the data, the Millman checklist, content analysis table, and standard formula were used. SPSS software version 21 was used to analyze the data. T-test, chi square, and independent sample test were used for statistical analysis. Results: Our results showed that 86. 55% of exams were in MCQ form and 13. 5% in written form. Content validity was considered in 94. 8% of exams. Standard structural rules were observed in 93. 61% of questions. Discriminative index and difficulty index were estimated to be 41. 6 and 68. 8%, respectively. Also, 43. 7% of questions were categorized as taxonomy I, 44. 38% as taxonomy II, and 11. 58% as taxonomy III. Conclusions: Exams held in Shahid Beheshti Dental School in the 2014-2015 academic year were acceptable considering their content validity, structural rules, and difficulty index. However, their discrimination index was low, and they were in poor conditions in terms of taxonomy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected educational systems all over the world, resulting in the shift from traditional problem-based learning (PBL) tutorial classes to virtual PBL online classes, especially in Arab countries. The effect of this suspension was obvious in institutions whose educational systems depend mainly on interactive smallgroup sessions like PBL. What problem was addressed? Educational institutions around the world have suffered from the COVID-19 pandemic due to the suspension of studies. The effect of this suspension was obvious in institutions whose educational systems depend mainly on interactive small-group sessions, like problembased learning (PBL). Undergraduate medical education was among the systems that suffered a lot. PBL is used to be conducted on campus in small groups of 10-13 students who, with the help of a facilitator (tutor), meet to brainstorm around a real-world clinical problem and meet again after a few days to discuss learning issues explored through such brainstormingandsolving the problem. The result is that students explore new concepts and deeply acquire new knowledge in an active learning manner (1).

Background: Shahid Beheshti General Medical Degree Curriculum (2004) is the first big reform program in Iran with more than 10 major educational interventions. Objectives: We aimed to evaluate the graduates’ viewpoints about the program. Methods: This study is a descriptive cross-sectional graduate survey in 2018, in which 194 medical graduates from 2011 to 2014 participated with a response rate of 51. 3%. The authors prepared a questionnaire with a four-point Likert scale based on the stakeholders’ viewpoints. The questionnaire contained 121 questions in seven domains: Job status, undertaking social responsibility, selfimprovement, competency, effects of interventions, adequacy of educational facilities, the impact of faculty members, and reform book effectiveness. In data analysis, the authors combined the positive ratings of "I agree" and "I strongly agree" and negative ratings of "I disagree" and "I strongly disagree. ” Results: More than 88% of the respondents were specialists, medical residents, or were preparing for the medical residency entrance exam. More than 94% of the graduates evaluated themselves as competent in clinical skills, health promotion, and selfimprovement, but 48. 9% were competent in health advocacy, 43. 3% in rehabilitation, 38. 6% in the knowledge of diseases, and 29. 4% in cognitive skills. The organ system approach (99%) and the approach to the presentation (87. 1%) were the most favorable aspects of the program; but, communication skills education (60. 8%), problem-solving sessions (64. 3%), and professionalism education (66%) were the weak aspects. Bedside clinical teaching (83%) was more effective than outpatient education (79. 4%) and didactic education (74. 2%). Among the participants, 64. 4% assessed the educational facilities as desirable, and 78. 4% of them, the educational hours. Besides, 77. 8% of the respondents agreed with the positive effect of clinical faculty members, and 45. 9% agreed with the basic faculty members. Moreover, a difference was observed between the effects of student textbooks (80. 4%) and study guides (60. 3%) on enhancing students’ learning. Conclusions: Overall, the program has shown effectiveness in many areas; however, it has a few weaknesses that should be considered in curriculum revision.

Background: Academic burnout is one of the most important problems throughout all levels of the education system. Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between time management and academic burnout with the mediating role of test anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs among university students in 2019. Methods: The study was a descriptive correlation performed by path analysis. The statistical population included all students of Islamic Azad University of Ahvazand222 of whichwere selected as the sample of the study using convenience sampling. The research instruments included the Academic Burnout Questionnaire, the Time Management Questionnaire, the test anxiety inventory, and the General Self-Efficacy Scale. The proposed model was evaluated using path analysis with AMOS software. Results: A direct and positive relationship was observed between time management and self-efficacy beliefs ( = 0. 345, P = 0. 0001) and between test anxiety and academic burnout ( = 0. 515, P = 0. 0001). The relationship between time management and test anxiety ( =-0. 586, P=0. 001) and between self-efficacy beliefs and academic burnout ( =-0. 305, P = 0. 0001) was negative. The relationship between time management and academic burnout was not significant ( =-0. 051, P = 0. 425). The results indicated that test anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs had a mediating role in the relationship between time management and academic burnout ( =-3. 964, P = 0. 001). Conclusions: According to research results, the proposed model had good fitness and is considered an important step in identifying the effective factors in students’ academic burnout.

Background: Analysis and review of dissertations over a period of time is one of the methods of viewing documents so that by formulating newer topics, a platform will develop for scientific advancement in the fields related to various academic majors. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to review master’ s dissertations of medical education graduates in the virtual school of medical education and management of shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science in the years 2011 to 2016. Methods: In this study, 144 master’ s dissertations of medical education students graduated in 2011-2016 from the virtual school of medical education and management of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Science were evaluated. Using an information checklist, relevant data were extracted from the dissertations. The topics of these dissertations were categorized into nine general categories. Also, we also reviewed the journals in which the articles extracted from the dissertations were published. Results: Overall, 74 MSc. dissertations in medical education (2011 to 2016) in the Virtual Faculty of Medical Education and Management of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences were evaluated, and the relevant journals in which the extracted articles were published were also reviewed. Conclusions: The results of this study showed that the tendency of students for conducting descriptive studies and using questionnaires was significantly higher, ignoring other research methods. This issue needs to be evaluated, and authorities should determine relevant causes to help planning and to create more diversity in the types of studies in this field. Also, due to the nonallocation of dissertations to some subject areas, such as reviewing and analyzing processes, there is a need to prioritize this topic when selecting future dissertations’ subjects and appropriately direct students to achieve the desired situation.

Context: Self-directed learning (SDL) is an individual’ s ability to effectively use various strategies to reach his/her learning goals. We conducted this systematic review to explore the different methods, advantages, and challenges in SDL. Method: A systematic and comprehensive literature search on PubMed, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases was carried out using keywords such as “ self-directed learning” , “ self-regulated learning” , and “ medical undergraduate curriculum” among articles published between 2010 and 2020. Original articles having methods, advantages, and challenges were included. The data were summarized and analyzed thematically. Results: Out of the total number of 1781 screened articles, sixteen eligible studies were included in the systematic review. Flipped classrooms, problem-based learning, case-based scenarios, video lectures, and e-learning were the commonly used methods. Selfassessment, time management, motivation, teamwork, and critical thinking were the advantages. Faculty guidance, time constraints, distraction due to technology, lack of organizational skills, and difficulty to learn complex topics were the common challenges of SDL. Conclusions: Most of the articles in recent years explain the growing interest in SDL in the medical curriculum. Despite numerous advantages of SDL, there are several challenges and limitations due to the lack of specific and defined guidelines for its implementation. Further research is required for structured methods and strategies for SDL effective implementation.