Perspective of Health Service Management Master Students about Methods of Holding Clerkship and Internship Courses: A Qualitative Study

Clerkship and internship courses are very important in health service management education. Due to weaknesses in holding of these courses in last few years, the aim of this study is to explore the viewpoints of Iranian master students in health service management about methods of implementing clerkship and internship courses.

In this qualitative study with phenomenological methodology, using purposive sampling method 9 people of health services management students from 7 medical sciences universies including: Tehran (1 person), Tabriz (1 person), Kerman (1 person), Esfahan (1 person), Shiraz (1 person), Gazvin (2 persons) and Azad university (2 persons) that 4 people were male and 5 of them were female selected. data were collected using focus group discussion and semi- structured interviews, conducted in2012 through open- ended questionnaire and were analyzed using Content- Analysis methods.

Findings resulted in 4 main themes and 20 sub themes. The main themes included: teaching methods, evaluation, strength and weakness points. Sub themes for teaching methods included: briefings, holding timetable, having lesson plan, tasks and activities. Sub themes for evaluation included: reporting, researching, and assignment and assessments by hospital authorities. Participants had complained about evaluation methods. About strength points, participants referred to focus on applicable subjects and its research- based nature. Sub- themes for weaknesses included: high working load, poor supervision, problems in coordination with hospitals, absence of curriculum authorities, and lack of familiarity of centers’ or field’s staff with topics in health services management

According to the results of this study to improve health service nanagment clerkship and internship courses, revising of evaluation methods in of these courses, improving coordination with hospitals and more familiarity of hospitals personnels with health service management are essential.