The obstacles of clinical education and strategies for the improvement of quality of education at Arak University of Medical Sciences in 2008

Identifying the problems which exist in clinical education and setting to solve them will lead to the improvement of quality of medical care services. This study was conducted to fulfill this goal.

In this descriptive–analytic research which was carried out in 2008, the views of the medical trainees and interns, who had at least gone through two major clinical courses at Arak University of Medical Sciences, about the obstacles of clinical education were evaluated. For achieving this purpose, a questionnaire containing 56 questions on 6 problem areas including clinical education spaces, educational facilities, cooperation of health and treatment personnel, clinical assessment and teaching methods, and clinical curriculum design methods was administered.

The quality of clinical education in the view of 41% of medical trainees and 48% of interns was seen to be at an average level. Assessment methods of clinical education, on the other hand, were rated as weak by 28.7% of trainees and 32% of interns. Also, 29.3% of trainees and 31.7% of interns evaluated the use of educational spaces to be at a weak level. Additionally, the quality of clinical teaching methods, educational facilities, cooperation of health and treatment personnel, and the design of clinical curriculum were seen at an average level.

This study highlighted the importance of determining learning experiences, applying proper teaching methods, conducting continuous generative evaluations, using simulated environments and educational spaces congruent with graduates’ future employment opportunities, and enhancing students’ level of motivation, as effective strategies for the improvement of the quality of medical education.