Research and Development in Medical Education
Volume:6 Issue: 1, 2017

By addressing the challenges of managing academic information, especially in the field of education, designing a framework as an organized structure for managing the quality of academic educational information is necessary. The framework for quality management of university educational information has received little attention so far and all of its aspects have not been elaborated comprehensively. This study has reviewed related literature.
In this review paper, the databases such as Web of Science, Scopus and Irandoc were searched for valid English and Persian articles from 1995 to 2017 using keywords or a combination of keywords such as "information quality management". After reviewing the printed references, 48 relevant cases were selected. No limitations were applied in the selection of articles and sources in terms of their types. There are no in-press or personal communication sources. The review was conducted at all of the three steps of information management.
Four aspects of data quality (DQ) were identified: intrinsic, contextual, representational and accessibility. Information quality is the main process of information management. The framework for quality management of university educational information was recognized in five main categories: the information quality and its necessity, the features of information quality, comparative study on the models of data quality management (DQM), improving information quality and university policies about DQ.
Quality management of university educational information is an effective step toward continuous improvement of DQ and can pave the way for information and academic managers while facing the current changing environment in the future issues.

This study intends to determine the educational needs of family health staff employed in health care centers in Tabriz, the provincial capital of east Azerbaijan, Iran in 2015.
In this cross-sectional study 282 staff were enrolled, together with 22 managers, through census. The data collection tool was a researcher-designed questionnaire whose content validity were confirmed by 5 experts of health care and medical education centers. They self--evaluated their knowledge, skills and attitudes in 6 task processes including "integrated care for pregnant women", "women’s general and reproductive health", "child health care and breastfeeding", "vaccination skills", "teenagers’ and young adults’ health", and "common diseases prevention and control". Cronbach alpha coefficients were over 0.85. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 16 and descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and one-sample t tests were calculated to compare the mean of scores with midpoint criteria (=3).
Generally family health staff self-evaluated their knowledge, skills and attitudes in all task processes in higher than midpoint criteria level, which was consistent with the opinions of the managers, however, educational needs required by personnel in some processes or sub- process including "common diseases prevention and control" ( knowledge on referring thalassemia couples for genetic testing, mental health counseling), "vaccination skills" ( intradermal vaccination skills), "teenagers’ and young adults’ health" (Self-care training and parents education), "women’s general and reproductive health" (principles of family planning counseling) and less needs stated in "integrated care for pregnant mothers" (except for diagnosis and management of ectopic pregnancy, placenta previa and abruption) and "child health care" as compared to criteria (All P value This study demonstrated the educational needs of family health providers in 6 task processes and prioritized them according to their views. Regular and comprehensive educational needs assessments are required to revise staff training programs, in order to give quality services to general population.

Learning methods are important in education, especially in some difficult lessons such as specialized or technical language. Instructors can use suitable and practical methods in these situations. The objective of this study was to compare the results of various educational methods for learning specialized language in occupational health students.
This study was a semi-experimental study conducted in the Health School of Mashhad among occupational health students using the approved curriculum; a course of specialized language was taught with attention to educational methods. Three educational methods were used: small group learning in group A (n = 24), lecture in group B (n = 26) and reading with use of audio-visual devices in group C (n = 25). Change in learning was determined and results were compared among the three groups of participants, with results of exams analyzed using SPSS 16. analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used since the data was normalized, and significance was calculated at P The mean grade in specialized language in group A was 16.66 (2.19), 10.93 (2.41) in group B and 14.74 (3.25) in group C. All of the methods had significant differences among each other, with P According to the total results, small group learning is the best educational method for learning specialized language for occupational health students.

One of the important indicators of development of human societies is justice, which also encompasses the notion of educational justice as one of its most important components. This study aimed to explore a new perspective of the concept of educational justice and its dimensions from the viewpoint of postgraduate students.
This qualitative investigation was conducted through conventional content analysis. Participants of the study, postgraduate students at a medical school, were selected from among male and female students using purposive sampling. Data collection was performed in focus groups based on the general question, "What is your understanding of the concept of educational justice and injustice?" Content analysis was used for data extraction and data analysis.
A total of 20 PhD students participated in four focus groups in this research. The concepts that emerged were categorized into three major themes, nine categories, and four subcategories. "Just education" consisted of five categories: efficient curriculum, learner development, just behavior of instructors, fair assessment, and just environment. Four subcategories: competent instructor, efficient instructor recruitment, creating learning opportunities, and professionalism were included under the category of just behavior of instructors. Other categories including research supervision ability and student research funding, which fell under the main theme of fair research, and finally the theme of just management of resources included two categories, fair distribution of facilities and fair allocation of financial resources.
This study’s findings depict the importance and necessity of efficient curriculum, learner development, justice of professor, justice of base research and fair management of resources.

Sleep deprivation and drowsiness are very common among university students. The aim of this study was to examine the sleep quality and academic achievement among university students across all medical disciplines in Northwest of Iran.
This study was based on data from a longitudinal study, the "Health and Lifestyle of University Students" (HeLiS). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), a self-administered questionnaire consisting of general information about sleep quality, was completed by students during the first eight weeks of the first semester and academic achievement was assessed via Grade Point Average (GPA) in the two semesters following the administration of the PSQI.
The mean age of students was 19.16±1.04 and the majority were female (64%). The mean overall score on the PSQI was 6.87±2.25; the majority of students (70%) had a global PSQI score greater than 5, indicating they were poor sleepers. Only 28% reported getting over 7 hours of sleep. Female students had higher scores than male students in subjective sleep quality, which was statistically significant (2.15 vs. 1.95 respectively, P = 0.01); however, there was no difference between males and females on other component scores or on the global score. Results of a multiple regression model showed that PSQI score was a predictor of academic achievement (β=-.07, P=0.035), which implies that GPA will be lower among students whose quality of sleep is lower.
Based on our sleep quality should be considered and assessed, and sleep hygiene should be promoted among medical university students in order to improve academic achievement.

Midwives play an important role in the implementation of health programs in health care units. The objective of this study was to compare the professional role and task in curriculum with the ongoing role and task of midwives working in the health care units of Tabriz (East Azarbaijan, Iran, 2015).
This cross-sectional study was done via census on all midwives working in rural and urban health units in Tabriz in 2015 (225 persons). The data was collected using a researcher-designed questionnaire based on the national midwifery curriculum approved in 2012. The questionnaire includes questions related to the use of specific teaching courses and their relevancy to the professional roles contained in the curriculum;a self-assessment of the midwives’ current performance was completed by midwives themselves. The validity and reliability of questionnaire were confirmed. Data were presented using mean (SD) and n (%) for numerical and categorical variables.
Professional roles and tasks contained in the curriculum were not fully relevant to current roles and tasks of midwives. The highest relevancy was related to the role of education and the lowest relevancy was seen in ongoing tasks related to disease diagnosis, care and intervention. Of the specialized courses, internships in pregnancy and childbirth and its pathology had the highest and lowest applications, respectively.
This study showed that, midwifery specialized training courses content and professional role and tasks curriculum- based are not consistent with ongoing expected real world tasks. Therefore, it is essential that reforms are made to enhance the curriculum and efficiently align it with practical responsibilities and expectations.

Nursing education provides opportunities for students to create positive changes in a clinical setting. Thus, the use of modern teaching approaches such as concept mapping (CM) in nursing can be useful. The aim of this study is to explain nursing students’ perception of applying CM.
This qualitative study reports CM in nursing students. Research areas were nursing colleges affiliated with the Iran and Tehran Universities of Medical Sciences. The participants comprised 25 nursing students who entered the research purposefully. Interviews were conducted face-to-face and semi-structured. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, reviewed, and the results were then extracted.
Two categories and four subcategories were identified. The categories included transcendence of meaningful learning and improvement clinical skills. Transcendence of meaningful learning had 2 subcategories: favorable perception and deliberative interpretation. Improvement of clinical skills also had 2 subcategories: reinforcing critical thinking and facilitating patient-centered care.
Identifying nursing students’ perception of CM techniques can assist nursing education administrators in providing better education to students both theoretically and practically based on the use of the aforementioned technique.

Concepts such as organizational commitment and employees’ and managers’ ethics provide decision-makers and policy makers with potentially useful information which can result in increasing organizational efficiency and effectiveness. This study aimed to explore the relationship between professional ethics and organizational commitment among the staff working in the education departments of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.
This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2015. The study population consisted of all staff working as educational experts in the education departments of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (N = 65). Data collection instruments used in this study were two standard questionnaires on professional ethics and organizational commitment. SPSS software version 21 was used to analyze the data.
According to the results, mean scores obtained for professional ethics and organizational commitment were (91.57± 9.13) (95% CI, 89.23-93.91) and (64.89 ± 10.37) (95% CI, 62.2367.54), respectively. A significant relationship was observed between professional ethics and organizational commitment among the educational experts working in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (correlation coefficient = 0.405) (P = 0.001) (at 95% confidence level). Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between professional ethics and work experience (P = 0.043). The highest level of professional ethics observed was associated with those participants having a work experience of ranging from 6 to 10 years. Individuals with fulltime employment scored the highest in organizational commitment.
Educational experts possessed a high level of professional ethics. The finding provides the grounds for promoting organizational commitment, which will lead to higher levels of organizational effectiveness.

Explicit teaching of generic conventions of a text genre, usually extracted from native-speaker (NS) manuscripts, has long been emphasized in the teaching of Academic Writing inEnglish for Specific Purposes (henceforthESP) classes, both in theory and practice. While consciousness-raising about rhetorical structure can be instrumental to non-native speakers(NNS), it has to be admitted that most works done in the field of ESP have tended to focus almost exclusively on native-speaker (NS) productions, giving scant attention to non-native speaker (NNS) manuscripts. That is, having outlined established norms for good writing on the basis of NS productions, few have been inclined to provide a descriptive account of NNS attempts at trying to produce a research article (RA) in English. That is what we have tried to do in the present research.
We randomly selected 20 RAs in dentistry and used two well-established models for results and discussion sections to try to describe the move structure of these articles and show the points of divergence from the established norms.
The results pointed to significant divergences that could seriously compromise the quality of an RA.
It is believed that the insights gained on the deviations in NNS manuscripts could prove very useful in designing syllabi for ESP classes.