Educational Research in Medical Sciences
Volume:1 Issue: 1, May 2012

Critical thinking skills as thinking and judging self-regulation are purposeful and result in solving problems and making appropriate decisions. Therefore, the importance of this subject and its role in the nursing profession and the clinical decision, this study was done to compare critical thinking skills of nursing students in continuous licentiate and bachelor- licentiate admissions. This study was the analytical method that all continuous and discontinuous nursing students(70) were assessed using a standard questionnaire form Watson and Glaser. Data were analyzed using statistical software SPSS.13.00. The results showed that the difference between the scores of critical thinking skills among continuous licentiate (42.29) and bachelor- licentiate (49) nursing students were statistically significant (P-value < 0.001). With an increase in semesters, there was increase in students critical thinking skills score consistently, but not statistically significant (P-value = 0.6). Between the average and marital status with critical thinking skills, no statistically significant relationship was found. Poor scores in critical thinking of nursing students in this study and other studies represent the need to review teacher’s clinical teaching methods, evaluation and how to delegate tasks to the student. According to study results, the need to review how to spend course and select of clinical educators for these courses seem evident.

Students with appropriate Critical Thinking Disposition can facilitate the countries of scientific development, at the first step of endeavor toward the development is to have a valid and reliable instrument. This study carried out to determine validly and reliability of California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) and critical thinking disposition of nursing and midwifery students of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. A Descriptive- Analytical study was carried out on nursing and midwifery students. The CCTDI instrument which includes 75 items. It determined total of Critical Thinking Disposition and 7 sub-scales (Open-Mindedness, Truth–Seeking, Maturity, Systematicity, Analyticity, Inquisitiveness and CT-confidence) among students. Content validity and internal consistency reliability were applied. 82.8% and 49% of students were females and midwifery students respectively. Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient of total Critical Thinking Disposition was 0.8 and sub-scales obtained the followings coefficients: CT-Confidence 0.7, Systematicity 0.6, Truth-Seeking 0.56, Analyticity 0.55, Inqu­isitiveness 0.4 and Open-Mindedness 0.43. The best scores of sub-scales belonged to CT-confidence among students and the most scales of Critical Thinking Disposition of students were ambivalence. It seems that the CCTDI is a proper instrument for nursing and midwifery students in Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. It is recommended to standardize the instrument for Iranian students.

Nowadays, a variety of different methods are employed to improve learning particularly in teaching to medical students. One of the factors affecting in learning is making the students active in teaching activities. Preparation of question through students is one of these ways to make the students active in learning, which was the main aim of this study.Methods and Materials: In this experimental study, 96 medical students taking part in a one month neurology course, included in this trial. Students were randomly designated into two groups. Students in group one were asked to prepare at least four multiple questions for each even session and students in group two were asked to prepare as least four multiple questions for each odd session. Therefore, each student had prepared questions from half of the sessions. The exam questions were prepared through the lecturer. The scores of the students, from the sessions which they had prepared question were compared with the scores of the sessions that they had not prepared question. The scores of the students from the sessions that they had prepared question (84.7%) were higher than the ones that they had not prepared question (61.5%) (P<0.05). In global, however, the student's scores were not significantly different in two groups. 75% of students believed that question preparation was effective in learning and 58.4% of them agreed with question preparation. It seems that students study the course more carefully when they prepare question and question preparation should be an effective method in active learning

One major undertaking of universities is educating professionals required by the community. Since academic institutes are willing to know about the fate of their graduated students and how they are using their expertise, the present study was performed to have a look at the employment status and the pursuit of higher education among the graduate students of operation room of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, in 1997-2006. Methods and materials: This study was a descriptive, cross- section. Data were gathered using a researcher- made questionnaire containing some demographic information, employment status, and pursuit of higher education among graduated of operation room. Data analysis was performed using SPSS.V.15, yielding findings in the form of frequency tables to study the relationship between some demographic characteristics and the pursuit of higher education and employment, was used. Findings indicated that the total number of graduated students in this field was 366 from1997 to 2006. The researcher were able to access 275 (75.1%) of them, comprising of 62.9% females, and 81.5% employed cases. 48.4% of them had pursued higher education in B.Sc, M.Sc, and PH.D levels, about 86.5% in nursing. Regarding unemployment levels of graduated students in this field of study, it is recommended that university admission be based on the requirements of the community.

Students and faculty members are two key elements of evaluation so the use of both views com help better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the learning and teaching processes Therefore this study aimed To compare Self and Student's Evaluation of academic advisors, performance in Arak University of Medical Sciences. Methods and Material: This is an analytical and cross-sectional study that was carried out on 32 student advisors and 400 medical students currently studying and passing at least one semester of study in the university. Data collection using questionnaires included demographic information, evaluation of advisors regarding how to interact and communicate with students and monitor problems in the field of counseling - individual and family counseling in the future career of students according to their views and assessment of students faculty advisor Finally, data were analyzed using t tests and ANOVA. In the present study mean score of self-assessment for faculty advisors was 74.33±16.6, and the average student evaluation score was 43.66±11.52, which showed a significant difference (p-value<0/001).There were no relationships between gender, history of academic rank and faculty advisor at the University teaching and student evaluation score (p-value>0/05). However, there was a significant differences between having executive position and students evaluation scores (p-value<0/001). The findings showed that providing consultation and guidance by counselors has not been satisfactory for the students. Retraining workshops to promote awareness, attitude and skills of faculty advisors is recommended.

The quantity and quality of research papers and projects is considered as the most important indicator of scientific development in any country therefore, the plan to compare barriers to research activities form the point of view of normal and talented students at Arak University of Medical Sciences was performed in 2010. Methods and materials: This study was a cross sectional analytical study that was carried out on 56 talented students and 180 regular ones. Data collection was done through questionnaires including research problems in different dimensions of methodology, access to resources, and more familiarity with the research process. The validity was measured through the content validity, and the reliability was confirmed through Crounbakh's alpha test. Finally, the data information were analyzed through Chi-square tests, t tests and ANOVA. The results showed that there was a significant difference between mean score of research problems of talented and regular students for no motivation for research (p<0/001), lack of sufficient in language English (p<0/003), lack of access to Counseling research at the University (p<0/022) and time-consuming research being done (p<0/0028) Most solutions proposed by the students include removing the obstacle in the fields research of law study, the use of experienced research consultants and research subsidies allocated to the students Considering the obstacles found in this study, eliminating obstacle regulations, training teachers in skills to help students to do research, encouraging students to participate in research methodology workshop and adequate funding can reduce barriers Be positive.

Clinical training is the heart of the professional teaching in nursing field because it takes over half of a training time of nursing students, and it is the basis of their professional skills acquisition, and it should always be evaluated to improve its quality condition. The object of this study is searching the clinical training condition from the nursing student's point of view and finding their interests and knowledge of their own major in Medical Science Faculty in the north of Khorasan. This research is an analytic-descriptive study that was done on 91students of the 4th semester and higher in educational year of 2009-10. The data gathering tool was a planned questionnaire consisting of three parts of demographic information. Some questions were about the amount of the student's knowledge of nursing field and the third section was related to the clinical training questions. For data analysis, the frequency distribution, mean and required tests in SPSS software 15 version were used. 51.6 percent of students evaluated the university clinical training in a good level. Meanwhile, the domains of teaching programming and clinical instructors were assessed 57.1 and 73.6 percent, respectively, in a good level and the clinical training environment and its assessment 57.1 and 49.5 percent, respectively', in the average level. The students knowledge of their own major showed a significant difference from the average of clinical instructors P=0.01 and the teaching programming P<0.001. determining the teaching programming and having the experienced clinical instructors in these domains, caused positive opinions in students, and in this section the students main problems are their need to facility provision, the equipment of clinical environment and the processes of clinical evaluation that it is not beyond expectation because this university is newly established.

The evaluation of teachers’ performance that the students have been part of it, if done right and be accepted by board of science, can be effective in improving the quality of their educational activities. Study of causes which result in low attention ratio faculty student evaluation results can help to overcome existing shortcomings and prepare requirements for proper operation from provided results of this evaluation. The purpose of this study is to compare the views of teachers with high and low scores evaluation on the importance and use of student assessments. This descriptive study investigates opinions of 184 members of board of science of the Medical Sciences faculty, Ahwaz JondiShapur. Two questionnaire surveys to collect data to evaluate student teachers (for the teachers to student evaluation) and evaluation by students (for the students to teaching and teachers) were used. The data in SPSS and paired t-test and Spearman correlation coefficients were analyzed. Results showed that comparing to the importance and use of student assessment results, average attitudes of teachers in the high group in significantly higher than teachers in lower group (3/69 vs. 2/84, 0/001 = p). Significant correlation was observed between average teacher’s evaluation scores and teacher’s attitude toward the importance and use of evaluation results of student (0/39 = r). Teachers with high evaluation scores comparing to teachers with lower evaluation scores have more positive attitude in the student evaluation. May be getting a high score from students is the reason of the positive attitude of these teachers to student evaluation results.