Journal of Medical Education Development
Year:2014 | Volume:7 | Issue:13|Papers Count:10

Background and Objective: Clinical instructors play an important role in creating a learning environment for their students to acquire professional skills. This study is aimed to determine students’ views on educational performance, interpersonal relationships and personal characteristics of clinical instructors at Zanjan School of Nursing and Midwifery.Materials and Methods: In this cross - sectional study, 332 college students of Zanjan School of Nursing and Midwifery participated. A questionnaire was designed which was approved by EDO members of the faculty. Questions were designed in five categories: general teaching ability, professional competency, student evaluation, interpersonal relationships and personal characteristics.Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, Friedman test, analysis of variance, and SPSS software were used to analyze the data.Results: 82.2% of students described the educational performance of their clinical instructors as “good”. In 80.9% of cases of clinical competence, in the area of Student Evaluation in 76.2% of cases and in 79.7% of cases of interpersonal relationships evaluation results were good. From the students’ perspective clinical instructors’ personal characteristics in 75.1% of cases were evaluated as good. The instructors’ scores was 84.9 out of a total of 100 scores and for both males and females the difference was not statistically significant. The total score achieved by clinical professors with Ph.D. degrees was higher than teachers’ with a Master’s Degree and B.Sc. Degree. It was also higher among midwifery instructors in comparison with the instructors of other fields and the differences were statistically significant (p<.05). The lowest score was for the instructors with 5-10 years experience and the highest was for the instructors with more than 10 years of experience.Conclusion: Although the practice of instructors in Zanjan School of Nursing and Midwifery has been evaluated as good, but with frequent evaluation of clinical education, monitoring of instructors performance, comparing the current situation with the situation before, strengthening the positive aspects and modifying the weaknesses we can take an effective step to further promote the quality of clinical education.

Background and Objective: Systemic manifestation of many diseases may happen in the mouth. Some of these disease are so serious that their incorrect diagnosis can cause death. Delayed referral may be due to lack of knowledge regarding cancerous and precancerous oral lesions. It is necessary for general physicians to have some knowledge regarding common oral lesions. So, we decided to evaluate medical interns knowledge in this field.Materials and Methods: Our research sample was medical interns of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences. Each sample received a questionnaire that was designed with the aid of references .At the end, knowledge scores were classified as weak, intermediate and good. Data were analyzed with spss 18.00, ANOVA and Ttest.Results: 51.6% of interns didn’t have any knowledge regarding Oral Medicine. 80.3% of them was agreed with teaching them Oral Medicine. Their accuracy in diagnosing malignant lesions, pigmented lesions and normal oral variations was 54.2%, 67.2% and 3.7% respectively. Their diagnostic ability and their therapeutic approach regarding malignant lesions, pigmented lesions and normal oral variations was intermediate, high and weak respectively.Conclusion: Regarding malignancies, knowledge of medical interns should be increased. Re-evaluation of medical curriculum is recommended according to common oral diseases.

Background and Objective: Public health graduates are experts who together with other health workforce will be responsible for provision, maintenance and promotion of community health. To do this important job, the students must gain the necessary knowledge and skills principally at clerkship period. This research was done with the purpose of examining the public health clerkship course by knowing about the viewpoints of the related faculty members and students at Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences.Materials and Methods: In this qualitative study, a purposive sampling was used to select the subjects from the population of trainees, graduates and the faculty members of public health. Semi-structured interviews were conducted. The results of the interviews led us to select the next sample, until no fresh ideas were gained. After gathering data from 11 persons, the results of the study were investigated by means of content analysis methodology.Results: By analyzing research data, five key themes were identified including clerkship curriculum, expectations from clerkship, motivation of students for clerkship involvement, training of non-technical skills, and clerkship planning and management.Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrated that lack of integrated planning is the most significant issue causing major setbacks for students’ clerkship. So it is indispensable for officials to improve the quality of clerkship through more incorporated plans.

Background and Objective: There are different personality variables such as happiness and self-efficacy that can influence on academic achievement of students. The aim of the study was to investigate relationships among these variables, academic achievement, and some demographics.Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional study performed on 180 students from Baqiyatallah university of Medical Sciences. The sample was selected using systematic random sampling method. A demographic questionnaire along with Oxford Happiness Inventory (OHI) and General Self-efficacy Scale (GSE) were used to collect data from students. Academic achievement was determined by the mean of grade point averages from two last semesters. Analyses were performed using student t-test, one way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation tests. All statistical analyses were executed by SPSS for windows version 20.Results: The mean standard score of happiness was 4.36 (SD=0.58) and the mean total score of self-efficacy was 61.60 (SD=9.09). The mean of grade point averages of two last semesters was 15.41 (SD=1.81). Factors such as marital status, age, academic grades and disciplines as well as academic achievement were related to happiness significantly. Similarly, marital status, age, academic grade and academic achievement were also related to self-efficacy. In addition, positive correlations were found between the main variables of the study, i.e. happiness, self-efficacy and academic achievement.Conclusion: Happiness and self-efficacy were related to various demographic and academic factors. Identifying and modifying these factors can lead to improvement of mental function and health among medical sciences students. Therefore, doing more studies to better understand such factors toward enhancement of education is suggested.

Background and Objective: Examinations before internship, as the last national test of general medicine, show the academic status of the students, particularly in clinical stage. The assessment of long-term results of this test can be made more rational and help remove flaws and lead to success in future.Materials and Methods: The study group was all students of medical sciences in Semnan in the years 1380 to 1389. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis.Results: Of the total of 316 people, those taking part in Esfand 1387 exam did better than those taking part in 1380 test. The scores in the first 5 years were better than those of the second 5 years.Conclusion: The review of comprehensive examination scores in consecutive years is recommended.

Background and Objective: Clinical education is a major component of the occupational therapy curriculum that enables students to experience professional roles in a real environment. This research was conducted to find out student’s experiences in the first fieldwork education.Materials and Methods: In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were performed with fourteen occupational therapy students which had passed the first semester of clinical education in three departments at Shahid Beheshti and Tehran Medical Sciences Universities and the University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences. The interviews were transcribed line by line and were analyzed according to Graneheim’s content analysis approach.Results: Interviews analyzed and three main themes were identified: educators and clinical education, educational program and educational environment. Subthemes include importance of initial sessions, experience of communicate with trainees, need to supervision and feedback, completing documentation, lecture as educational strategy, variation in student clinical evaluation, gap between theoretical units and clinical education, clinical observation unit as ineffective course, role of planning, settings and its physical structure, and staff as influencing factors.Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that occupational therapy students have experienced problems in their first sessions at educational clinics. Therefore, occupational therapy educational programmers provide further efforts to address these problems. Further studies are also necessary to clarify the experiences of educators, administrators and other factors involved in this field.

Background and Objective: The aim of OSCE is to evaluate students’ clinical skills in clinical courses. Using written scenarios are common in designing OSCE stations in our country. The objective of this study was to determine the correlation of OSCE and Pre-Internship for this type of station designing.Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was done on OSCE scores of 48 fifth-year medical students. Correlation of all station scores of the OSCE exam with the Pre-Internship exam scores were calculated. To determine the internal consistency within stations, we determined each station’s correlation with the total score of a student’s test for OSCE.Results: In this study, there was no significant relationship within Pre-Internship exam scores and the OSCE scores. Negative correlations were found between the model and the procedures station scores with Pre- Internship scores. Correlation coefficient of Pre-internship scores with 3 practical stations mean scores were a -0.07 (p=0.65) and its correlation with 6 stations based on written scenario scores calculated was 0.32 (p=0.02). Internal medicine with a correlation coefficient of 0.81 was the highest and eye examination station with 0.17 had the lowest correlation coefficient of internal consistency. Correlation of the two stations of neurology and surgery scores with both Pre-Internship and OSCE was significant and approximately similar.Conclusion: We suggest avoiding the station design based on written scenarios (without presence model or standard patient). Otherwise, OSCE should be measured the same as clinical competencies are assessed with Pre-Internship exam.

Background and Objective: Objective evaluation of clinical and professional competency is one of the most important aspects in medical students’ clinical education. Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS) evaluates a large spectrum of technical and basic skills in an experimental setting. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of two methods of evaluation Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS) and Traditional Practical Examination (TPE) on students’ satisfaction in Gonabad Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery.Materials and Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental research. The samples consisted of 45 nursing and medical emergency students who selected Practical Principles and Techniques. They were collected by the census methods and were evaluated by both Objective Structural Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS), and traditional methods. For data gathering, a researcher- made questioner was used to poll about methods and check lists of skills assessment that were prepared by considering the standards of nursing skills. Moreover, its validity and reliability had been confirmed. The data was analyzed with a paired t- test and independent t-test using of Spss/20 software.Results: The mean score of OSATS was higher than that of TPE and the difference was statistically significant (P=0.00). Also level of OSATS was higher than that of TPE (P=0.00). 93.3% of students agreed with the evaluation by OSATS in future.Conclusion: It is concluded that Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS) can evaluate more practical skills and gain more students’ satisfaction. Teachers also have a positive attitude towards this type of evaluation.

Background and Objective: Ethical codes are developed as practical guidance for nursing care and are references of decisions-making by nurses in care process. With regard to the importance of morality issue in nursing, observance of ethical codes among nursing students and nursing practitioners in Al-Zahra hospital in Isfahan was studied.Materials and Methods: This research is a descriptive- analytic study. Data gathering tool was 31-item questionnaire adopted from ethical codes for nurses developed by ministry of health medical education. In addition to individual information, this questionnaire includes two parts of ethical codes related to provision of clinical services (23 item) and those related to relationship of treatment team (8 item).The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was estimated (a=90%). Simple sampling was utilized to select 32 nursing students and 40 nursing practitioners in Al-Zahra hospital. Data were analyzed with SPSS version 18 and t test.Results: The average age was 22.29 (1.37) and 29.47 (7.34). Most of the students (93.8%) and nurses (87.5%) were women. There was no significant difference between the two groups in ethical codes related to provision of clinical services, but thenurses gained significantly more score in ethical codes compared to the treatment group (p=0.04).Conclusion: It is recommend that managers and nursing educators pay more attention to the observance of ethical codes related to provision of clinical services by nursing students and nurses.

Background and Objective: The teacher is the most important factor in achieving educational goals in any academic institution. Awareness of student opinions about the characteristics of a good teacher can help us to determine the principles of evaluation of teaching and learning activities. The present study was carried out to determine the characteristics of a good teacher from the viewpoint of students of Sanandaj University of Applied Sciences.Materials and Methods: The present research was a cross-sectional study. Samples were all of students of Sanandaj University of Applied Sciences who had passed at least two semesters and were enrolled in the second semester of the academic year of 2013. Of those, 384 students were randomly selected. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire consisting of two parts: demographic questions and questions related to the characteristics of a good teacher. For data analysis spss version 16 was used.Results: From the viewpoint of the students, mastery of the subject matter taught by the teacher, general nowledge about teaching of the lesson, trying to understand the lesson and answering students’ questions and teaching experience of the teacher were most important. The least important characteristics of a good educator were paying attention to the students, holding quizzes and midterm exam, academic rank, compliance with educational regulations and dropping the students who exceed absent-from-class limit. There was no statistically significant relationship between sex, course of study and the six areas of the haracteristics of a good teacher (P>0.05).Conclusion: The results of the present study show that in the selection of the teachers, high academic abilities, familiarity with the methods of communication, and appropriate ways of dealing with students should be given greater weight.