RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN MEDICAL EDUCATION
Year:2018 | Volume:7 | Issue:2|Papers Count:9

The mission statement of most medical schools often addresses the obligation to direct their education, research, and service activities toward addressing priority health concerns of the community; they have a mandate “ to serve” . 1 On a broader spectrum, social accountability can be defined as addressing the competencies that enable medical graduates to develop community oriented goals, re-orienting medical education to launch highvalue, community oriented primary care interventions, to develop the interest of students to serve marginalized areas, and to accredit/analyse the systemic impact of the interventions. But in the era of “ globalized healthcare” and “ specialties inclination, ” we cannot deny the existing challenges towards inculcating social responsibility among medical students. In fact, institutions find it difficult to balance financial compartmentalization for advanced technologies on one hand and commitments to address social determinants of the community on the other hand. In this article, we intend to address the roadblocks in achieving socially accountable medical education in the Indian context. . . .

Medical education is more affected by social processes than other forms of professional training in that it relates directly to the patient as a member of the community. The socialization of health as a kind of social process undoubtedly affects both qualitative and quantitative aspects of medical education. 1 Medical schools take the first step in the socialization of health by carefully assessing the health needs of their underserved communities. The minimum health needs of the community can be met by providing the required human resources and providing health care. On a higher level, the community expects the health system to train a health workforce with more competencies and skills empowered by ethics and professionalism. In order to meet such community needs, a responsive medical faculty must inevitably include at least four core competencies in its curriculum to design the main roles of a clinical practitioner (Table 1). . . .

Feedback refers to the information regarding an individual’ s performance, and is essential for the growth of an individual or an organization. 1 In an educational setup, feedback is information shared with an individual or a group about their prior actions or behavior so that the concerned person or group can modify their existing or future actions to eventually achieve the desired outcomes. 1 In medical education, feedback is a process in which students acquire information about their performance with the intent to match their performance to the desired standards. . . .

Background: Faculty development programs are essential for the advancement of faculty competence and organizational vitality. This is a multidimensional, daunting task because it involves transforming early career faculty with newer professional competencies such as educators, researchers and leaders. To get accustomed to these newer roles and responsibilities in medical education, faculty development programs must be modified and upgraded over time. However, a number of quintessential themes required for contemporary medical education practices are not routinely being addressed, particularly in medical schools in developing countries. Methodology: This narrative review explores some practical complications in the existing faculty development programs and describes six areas to consider as the field of faculty development moves forward: incorporation of faculty identity, faculty vitality, barriers to faculty mentoring, breaking down silos, missing the grounds of evaluation, and importance of phronesis (that is, good character and good judgment). Conclusion: By exploring frequently encountered challenges in designing and implementing faculty development activities, this article asks medical educators to advance faculty development programs beyond formal activities and situate these in a wider context to aid collaboration between colleagues.

Background: Knowledge acquisition, as a part of knowledge management, plays a valuable role in nursing education. Hence, the education system seeks strategies that allow nursing faculty members and students to acquire knowledge and build experiences. The present study explores the process of acquiring knowledge in nursing education. Methods: In this study, which was carried out in Mashhad School of Nursing and Midwifery, Iran, the grounded theory (GT) method proposed by Strauss and Corbin was used. Data were collected through 29 semi-structured interviews, including 17 interviews with faculty members and 12 interviews with nursing students using purposeful and theoretical sampling. Using Strauss and Corbin’ s method, the data were compared partially, deeply, and persistently. Results: The main concern of this study was a knowledge deficit in clinic knowledge by nursing students, which seems to indicate a shortage in learning and acquiring knowledge. The core category was the relative acquisition of knowledge of nursing which is not advanced. Within a context of relative dynamism, factors that facilitate or constrain knowledge acquisition were examined within a process of the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and its application to clinical nursing knowledge along with nursing experience. The consequence is expected to be an improvement in nursing knowledge among nursing students in clinical practice Conclusion: Acquiring up-to-date and advanced nursing knowledge is essential in the development process. It is necessary to encourage the acquisition of knowledge, which primarily includes knowledge acquisition in the mission and strategic planning of nursing education. As a result, there should be operational planning for improvements in the gain of practical knowledge.

Background: Variations in learning styles among students could explain many differences in students’ acquisition of knowledge. This study examined the association between learning styles and academic achievement among students at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences in the northwest of Iran. Methods: This research is part of a longitudinal study entitled, “ Health and Lifestyle of University Students” among undergraduate, medical, dentistry, and pharmacy students at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences who entered the university in October 2014. A self-administered questionnaire that consisted of general information and Kolb’ s learning style was completed by these students during the first eight weeks of their first semester. Academic achievement was assessed using grade point average (GPA) in the following semesters (1 and 2) of the academic year. Results: A total of 452 students were included in this study with a mean age of 19. 16 ± 1. 03. The most prevalent learning style was convergent and the second most common was accommodative. The average GPA of the students was 15. 74 ± 1. 57 out of a possible 20. The results of a multivariate regression showed that the effect of learning style on academic achievement, in the presence of other variables, was not statistically significant. Sex was able to predict academic progression (β = 0. 188, P = 0. 001). In addition, GPA was higher among dentistry students (β = 0. 128, P = 0. 012) and lower among nursing and medical students (β = =-0. 211, P = 0. 001; β =-0. 127, P = 0. 015 respectively). Conclusion: Although students’ academic achievement was correlated with their learning style, the popularity of convergent and accommodative styles should be considered in that acknowledging the prevailing learning styles of students could promote academic achievement.

Background: Due to the importance of the teaching and learning process in medical sciences, it is necessary to provide an appropriate context to facilitate knowledge sharing. Communities of practice (CoPs) is one strategy for sharing explicit knowledge and learning among individuals. This research aimed to develop CoPs model at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This descriptive-survey research was conducted on 245 faculty members selected through a simple random sampling method at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences who had the rank of professor, associate professor and assistant professor in the 2017-2018 academic year. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed by analyzing main components that were verified by a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The reliability of components was calculated using Cronbach’ s alpha. Results: The CoPs model consists of six components including participatory leadership, goals/ aims, boundary and size, interactions, formal structures, and informal structures. There was a significant relationship observed between all components. The strongest correlations were observed between the boundary-size and interactions (0. 85), goals/aims and leadership (0. 78), and informal structure and leadership (0. 76). In examining the relationships between each component, the strongest correlation was found between CoPs and informal structure (0. 88), participatory leadership (0. 87), and interactions (0. 85) and the weakest relationship was observed between formal structure and CoPs (0. 61). Results of determining fit indices indicated validity of the CoPs model (χ 2/df =2. 69, CFI= 0. 92, IFI= 0. 92, NFI= 0. 88, RMSEA= 0. 09). Conclusion: university managers using this model and strengthening the informal aspects of existing communities increase the possibility of faculty members’ interactions from different units and having them participate in decision making related to teaching and learning processes to take effective steps towards academic development of this university.

Background: The assessment of clinical teaching is a considerable task. The aim of this study was to select and modify items from the ministry of Health’ s clinical teaching standards to develop a checklist to assess clinical teaching. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in the faculty of medicine at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. Participants were clinical academic staff in the faculty of medicine who had an educational level of a master’ s degree in medical education. Ten clinical teachers were identified who were eligible to be in this study. They were requested to read the checklist and provide feedback and suggest changes regarding the environment at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences to make the modified checklist fit with local practices. Results: All of the participants had consensus on keeping 11 (73%) items of the checklist the same. Four (27%) of the items were recommended to be omitted. Clinical teaching standards have three main parts: preparation, timing, and implementation of clinical teaching. The most recent version of the checklist consists of 11 items based on participant review. These 11 items consist of five items from preparation, one item from timing, and five items from implementation. Conclusion: The checklist was modified to be more usable. The most recent version of the checklist consists of 11 items based on participant review. The checklist can also be adapted to improve self-promotion among the faculty.

Background: The use of new technologies in education is a topic that has attracted the attention of educational experts over the past two decades. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of an instructional model enriched with assistive technology on the achievement satisfaction of people with physical-motor impairments in learning English. Methods: The research method is semi-experimental, with a pre-test/post-test design using a control group. The statistical population consisted of male individuals with physical mobility impairments studying at Imam Ali Educational Center in Tehran. To determine the sample size, Cohen’ s (1986) table was used. Based on the sample size table, 16 people were selected. In this method, after drawing up a student list with a random number table, the sample was selected after checking criteria for entry and exit. The experimental group was trained in six sessions using an instructional model enriched with online and offline assistive technologies, and the control group was trained in the usual way. Results: The mean ± standard deviation (SD) for pre-and post-test in the experimental group were 75. 50 ± 5. 90 and 82. 25 ± 6. 29, respectively, and was 75. 38 ± 11 and 77. 37 ± 11. 91 in the control group. The results of the analysis of covariance between adjusted means of both groups for variable of academic satisfaction show a significant difference between the two groups (F = 20. 06, P < 0. 01). The effect size was 0. 60. Conclusion: Using an instructional model enriched with assistive technology can be useful in teaching English to individuals with physical-motor impairments.