Implementation of Pre-internship Exam in the Radiology Technology Field of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences

The existence of a monitoring system is necessary in the educational system of universities, especially medical sciences universities, to improve quality and determine education strengths and weaknesses. For this purpose, implementation of the pre-internship exam for the radiology technology internship students in a comprehensive manner with a clinical approach, was studied. The exam purposes are to prepare students entering internship courses, re-studying related courses, improving skill learning in different imaging protocols and increasing student’s motivation to start mentioned courses in hospital departments.

 The first Pre-internship exams (beginning of third and fourth year) were approved in the department roundtable and held in the first half of October 2019 and for the second time in the second half of September 2020. In this descriptive-analytical study, survey and evaluation of the implemented exams performed by pre-designed forms through all members of three groups of project beneficiaries: faculty members of department, internship liaisons and experts of medical imaging departments, students. In data analysis, non-parametric statistical methods such as Mann-Whitney, Wilcoxon and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used.

The beneficiaries' agreement with impact of the exam in increasing skill learning and motivation to start internship courses, promoted significantly in 2020 compared to 2019 (P<0.001). The survey of process beneficiaries showed a significant increase in agreement to hold exam regularly in the coming years, in 2020 compared to 2019. The results of this study showed that holding pre-internship exams can have positive effects in improving students' benefit from clinical training.

The results show that the improvements made in implementation of process after receiving beneficiaries’feedback have led to increase the relative satisfaction in various areas: the way exam was held, the effect of exam in promoting skill learning and students' motivation and desire to exams were held regularly in 2020 compared to 2019.