Efficacy of Midwifery Clinical Curriculum in Achieving Core Learning Goals: Tutors and Students Point of View

Achievement of professional standards in all medical disciplines including midwifery is fulfilled via the achievement of goals in clinical education. Considering the importance of clinical curriculum this study was conducted to identify midwifery tutors and students point of view regarding the efficacy of the curriculum for the students to achieve the basic learning objectives. This study was a deh1ive analytic research conducted in Shahroud University of Medical Sciences in 2008. Subjects of this study were 57 senior students and 9 tutors. The research instrument was a questionnaire consisting of 39 items covering basic clinical goals of three special courses namely "pregnancy" "delivery" and "obstetrics". Respondents replied to the items using a Likert-type scale ranging from "completely" to "not at all". Comparison of the two groups of this study showed that they rated differently the achievement of learning goals in midwifery curriculum. Means of scores rated by students in the three courses namely "pregnancy" "delivery" and "obstetrics" were 65.0±18.2 50.9±24.8 and 54.4±25.5 respectively with the total average of 58.7±20.6. The finding of this study indicated a significant difference between students and tutors point of view scores regarding the achievement of basic learning goals by students. Based on these findings it seems necessary to conduct extensive modifications in educational clinical setting such as more collaboration between clinical staffs and educational personals and students insuring patients acceptance to students more active participation in the process of treatment to make students feel more competent.