The Structure of Morning Report in Major Departments of Shahrekord University of Medical Sciences Based on National Standards for Clinical Training Settings

Morning reports refer to case-based conferences attended by faculty members, residents and medical students to discuss patients admitted the night earlier. This study assessed the conduction of morning report sessions in teaching hospitals of Shahrekord based on the national standards. In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, a morning report assessment checklist was developed according to the national standards issued by the Ministry of Health. The researcher completed the checklist by attending 22 morning report sessions (selected by census method). Data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics. The mean session duration was 49.36±13.6 minutes. In 20 sessions (90.9%), faculty members led the discussions, while 16 sessions (77.3%) were conducted as Q&A and the faculty members only asked questions. In 14 cases (63.6%), one patient was introduced in each session, and in 12 cases (54.5%) patients were introduced by the interns. The majority of patients introduced were complicated patients (n=11, 50%) followed by common patients (n=3, 13.6%). The results suggest that despite existing deficiencies, the general structure of morning report sessions is acceptable and the department are committed to conducting such sessions. Therefore, identifying the weaknesses and strengths and encouraging the departments will lead to enhanced settings for report sessions and contribute to effective clinical training.