Description of the experiences of faculty members from knowledge-enhancing workshops at Ahvaz Jundishapur university of medical sciences: A qualitative study

Despite the fact that knowledge enhancement workshops are held in medical sciences universities of the country, studies have shown that the status of programs and activities related to these workshops have not been evaluated. In this regard, the present study aimed to describe the experiences of faculty members from knowledge enhancement workshops held at Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran.

This inductive qualitative study was performed based on conventional content analysis from October 2021 to May 2022. The required data were collected through 18 in-depth semi-structured and in-person interviews with 16 faculty members of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences. Participants were selected by purposive sampling method and the sampling continued until data saturation. The data were analyzed in MAXQDA software (version 10) using the Braun and Clarke method.

The interviews were divided into more than 401 open codes, 31 subcategories, 14 categories, and 2 main categories (themes). The themes that emerged included "challenges and weaknesses" and "solutions to improve the workshops". The theme of challenges and weaknesses was divided into eight categories, including the topic needs assessment, appropriateness of the content, methods of holding and teaching, registration in workshops, the time of workshops, the place of workshops, evaluation methods, and instructors of workshops. Moreover, the theme of solutions was divided into six categories, namely improvement of the selection process of instructors, usage of the capable and expert selection process of instructors, improvement of the topic needs assessment methods, modification of content matters, facilitation of information channels, and improvement of the categorization evaluation system.

The main goal of knowledge enhancement workshops is to improve the abilities of professors. Therefore, paying attention to the challenges, weaknesses and providing solutions can improve the quality of these workshops and also encourage the faculty members to participate in them.