Journal of Medical Education
Volume:13 Issue: 1, Feb- May 2009

Background and Training in laboratory for clinical procedural skills is considered an important part of the core undergraduate dental curriculum. There is some evidence that junior dentists are not adequately trained in these skills. The present study was conducted to compare the assessment of dentistry students’ competence and performance through direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS) and MCQ methods in fixed prosthesis course. This cross-sectional study was conducted on dental students in Shiraz in 2007. The subjects of this study consisted of 54 students who underwent the current format of assessment (DOPS). The instructors evaluated the students’ activity weekly by checklists and evaluation forms provided by the authorities in the administrative and education development office of dental school. They were also assessed by a 20 item MCQ test. The data were analyzed by SPSS software, using frequency distribution mean. The findings revealed that 86.7% of the students in different fields of dentistry had desirable performance and 13/3 % of them had undesirable practical performance, not functioning satisfactorily in their workplace. In this study, there was a direct relationship between the graduates’ average scores and the quality of their performance. DOPS is a useful tool for assessment of dental students’ practical laboratory competence. It is believed that we now have a system for workplace assessment of dental trainees in the laboratory.

Internists contribute to the care of sizable populations for a vast variety of conditions. However, despite the importance of the need assessment for these specialists in Iran remains uncharted. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue and to recommend further actions related to training of internists.Internal Medicine is a 4-year specialty program, for which candidates can take a specialty entrance examination only after finishing their medical school, including an18-month Internship, and registration as medical doctor (M.D) by the Iranian Medical Council. The entrance examination is held in two stages, a multiple choice question- and an oral examination. Currently in 2009, approximately 3000 internists are working in the I.R. Iran. Since the year 2000, number of yearly admissions for specialty training of internal medicine has ranged between 180 and 213. Based on the population needs of hospital care, ambulatory care, population growth, there is a need to have 6700 positions available for clinically trained internists in the Islamic Republic of Iran which yields a ratio of 1 internist for every 11,000 population (6700 for 74 million), a ratio that is much lower than the mean ratios of internists in many countries. It is estimated that Iran will reach a population of 90 million by the year 2021, at which time the country will need the services of 8200 internists. If the yearly admission rate of 220 internal medicine residents continues, in the next 13 years, only 2860 internists will enter the practice and total number of internists will reach 5860, by the year 2021. However, since during the next 13 years, approximately 1430 internists will enter subspecialty trainings, making the total number of those practicing pure internal medicine 4430, i.e. 3770 less than the 8200 internists needed. It is vital that these estimates be urgently analysed in greater detail to emphasize the criticality of the dilemma to the public and the government, and to identify solutions to avert the enormous consequences that the shortage of internal medicine and its subspecialties may have for public health

Background an English as the lingua franca of the third millennium has well opened its way through all aspects of life including medicine. In line with this trend, some hospital wards at Shahid Beheshti Medical University (SBMU) have started to hold their usual morning report(MR) sessions in English. Usually everyday there is an MR session in Farsi, and one day per week it is held in English. Among other factors, participants’ attitudes and the stress/or anxiety felt by the participants in these aural/oral sessions may become important and have impacts on patients’ future treatment plans decided at the MR sessions. The present study seeks to determine the participants’ attitudes and probable anxiety experienced by them. A total number of 110 participants (61 male, 45 female) attendants at the MR Sessions from three of the SBMU affiliated hospitals in Tehran attended this study. The participants included 13 attending physicians (all SBMU academics), 56 residents (from orthopedics, urology, internal medicine, nephrology, neurology, obstetrics & GYN wards), 24 interns and 12 stager students from the above wards also attended the study. 4 validated questionnaires were filled out by the participants at the MR Sessions along with a form to show their attention to the cases presented and a form on how they had answered the questions. The data collected were analysed by the SPSS16.

Background and Importance of clinical skills learning in medicine cannot be overemphasized but it seems that due attention is not paid to this issue. This study is an attempt to examine the effectiveness of direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS) in this regard. In this study all externs passing the obstetrics ward rotation in 2005 and 2006for the first time participated. In this study, at first, 7 fundamental skills were selected and checklists for skill evaluation was prepared. Student’s skills was evaluated before and after traditional education(control group) and before and after intervention which added DOPS. Examiners were requested to also provde a global judement of students performance. The data was analysed with paired T- test, T- test by SPSS software. In this study 73 students participated of whom 42 students (57.5%) were in control group, and 31(42.5%) were in intervention group. In control group 47.6% and in interventional group 58.1% were male. Comparing students’ scores for each skill, the intervention group had significantly improved more than control group (p=0.0001). Comparing the interventions means of students’ averages for all skills before and after intervention (49.49 vs 86.03, p<0.0001) with those of control group(49.99 vs 77.43, p<0.0001) showed that the intervention group performed significantly better than control group (36.54 vs 27.44, p<0.0001). The examiner teacher’s opinion about doing each skill by the student correctly showed that the students’ skills in interventional group was more correct than control group. T-test showed a significant difference between groups in improvement of all skills (p=0.000). Using DOPS can be very useful in increasing student’s skill learning.

Background and roles and tasks of intended graduates direct medical eductionist for developing the right curriculum. In Iran there has been no systematic study on defining GPs roles. This study is an attempt to systematically clarify the roles of GPs in Iran. In this questionnaire – based survey executive directors of Universities of medicine of Iran and general practitioners participated. The subjects were selected through stratified sampling procedure. A semi-structured questionnaire was developed which covered the goals and functions of health system as mentioned in World Health Report 2000. For content validity a panel of experts including health care professionals, biostatisticians, and psychometrist evaluated the questionnaire. For the reliability of the questionnaire a pilot study was carried out. Chronbach’s coeficient were calculated as 0.89. The final revision of the questionnaire included 15 roles in current and ideal states. The respondent should score each role in both states in a range of 0-100. Of 94 subjects who received the questionnaire, 71 (80%) completed and returned it. Of all subjects 42.2% were female and 57.8% were male. Of all subjects 25% were faculty members. The subjects believe that in the current state “health care provision” (85.4±18.6) “health center administration” (57.8±24.8), and “leading clinical services and coordinating patients care” (47.6±26.8) are more evident while “fund holding” had the lowest rank(5.0±10.0). They believed that in an ideal national health system physicians should play most of these roles in various extents. The participants believed that GPs should play other roles beyond the clinical care provision to enable health system respond to community needs and expectations. The graduate medical degree should be reformed if the gradates are going to play these new roles.

Background and Self-assessment is an important tool for adult learner since they are aware of their learning and give valuable information for improvement of education. This study is an attempt to examine residents self-assessment as an input to evaluate the effectiveness of different education activities and setting in neurology In this is cross-sectional study all Neurology residents of Shiraz Faculty of Medicine participated. Four questionnaires were developed; each for residents of each year based on objectives of neurology department. Content validity was examined by a group of 4 experts from education development center and office. The reliability was determined after a pilot study by Test-retest method(r=0.9).The returned questioner were analysed. According to the opinion of residents, among different ways of medical education,, morning report with 90% and then conferences with 50% had gained the best effective methods of teaching. However journal club and case presentation were the least effective (20-30%). Residents reported that they need Out Patient Department (OPD) education (teaching) and require the academic staffs to spend more time with them in Operation Room (OR) and emergency room (E.R).. For improving students educational experience: send feedback for present academic staffs to revise the methods of education and design rotation in other wards and encourage faculties and residents to design and use log books.

Background and Today with growth of information, information sources are also growing in number and diversity. The users should welcome these changes and learn the skills which help with optional use of information resources and prevents confusion. This study is an attempt to evaluate student use of information resources and library services in Semnan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services. In this survey a questionnaire was used to collect the date. The questionnaire included question on demographic data such as the degree program of study, sex, living place and 15 items on study habits and library use. The last year students of 13 disciplines leading to Associate degree, Bachelors degree, and Professional doctoral degree (medicine) were included in this study. The association of variables was tested with chi-square and fisher exact tests and to examine the correlation of variables Spearman correlation coefficient was used. A P value of less than 0.05 was considered significant In this study 215 last year students participated. Of all participants 70.3% were female; 43.3% study for an associate degree, 47.4% studies for Bachelor’s degree and 9.3% studied for doctoral degree; 92.6% lived in dormitories. There is a significant association between use of library sources and the study program degree (r=0.191, P=0.005) and living place (P=0.026) Original English books are used scarcely. Use of English sources are associated with the degree the students studied for (r=0.137, P=0.045) and sex; using specialty journal is associated with program degree (r=0.160, P=0.013).Most students of doctoral degree (40%), bachelors degree (42.2%), and associate degree (32.3%) did not use library as an educational setting. Male students (28.2%) and students living in dormitories (24.6%) “always” used library as main study place. Most of our students always or often preferred transcripts of instructors’ lecture over other resources of library which might be due to the lack of information handling skills. Training students on the potentials of library in helping them with their education can help in this regard.

Background and In recent years although the number of students registering for medicines has decreased in Kermanshah University of Medical sciences parallel to other universities of medical sciences the quality of educational services has not improved the informal reports suggests that the competency of medical graduates is not satisfactory Since any intervention needs situation analysis this study was conducted to obtain viewpoints of three main groups of stockholders including faculty members, students and graduates on medical school problems and insufficiencies. In this qualitative study faculty members of medical schools, medical graduated of 2005-6, and medical students of different phases participated. With participation of these subjects Focus Group Discussion (FGD) sessions were carried out. The goals of the projects were first explained for participants. In the end of each discussion session the discussions were careful transcribed. The sessions continued till the sessions get saturated. The transcript of discussion was thoroughly reviewed by researchers and codified. The problems were classified in 7 areas of management, planning, education goals, evaluation, ethics, teaching, and students. The subjects believed that the most important problems in Kermanshah medical school include neglecting the student evaluation, no educational objectives or being inattentive to them, unwanted effects of pay for service plan, too much duties for interns (students), overload of medical duties and insufficiency in the number of faculty members, no rewarding system for teachers, inattention to needed outcomes, shortage of facilities for student in hospital and being negligent about mutual respect between students and teachers. some of the problems such as the effects of pay for service plan and insufficiency in the number of faculty members have solutions stemming beyond the university at Ministry of Health level, however, most problems are local, therefore, if the directors pay more attention regarding planning, allocation and management, we can see quality improvement in medical education in Kermanshah medical school.