Assessment of complying with educational accreditation standards by medical students in teaching hospitals

Accreditation is one of the educational evaluation methods that is based on self-assessment and peer evaluation and is carried out to ensure the quality of the institution or university. This study was conducted for the assessment of complying with educational accreditation standards by medical students in teaching hospitals.

This was a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study. A questionnaire was developed in two parts including demographic characteristics and 6 domains (professional coverage, communication skills, rules and regulations, education, safety and professionalism) and 47 items with 5-point Likert scale. Face and content validity of the questionnaire were confirmed, and reliability was calculated with internal consistency coefficient. Then, the obeying with educational accreditation standards was assessed by medical students. SPSS 16 software were used for data analysis.

Medical students (n=210) completed the questionnaire. (α=0.91) The frequency of compliance with educational accreditation standards in professionalism and communication skills was at a desirable level (78.5% and 57.6%), and in professional coverage, regulations, education, safety and total of 6 domains were reported as semi-desirable (58.6, 75.2, 76.2, 64.3 and 70%). In general, the adherence to educational accreditation standards was significantly higher among female students; mean age over 35 years; married; the higher level of education and higher awareness of standards (P≤0.05).

Self-assessment in students as a turning point to reflect on skills acquired in the areas of professional coverage, communication skills, rules and regulations, education, safety and professionalism, which include the essential competencies emphasized by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) for the training of physicians.