Journal of Medical Education
Volume:14 Issue: 3, Aug 2015

Background and Today, according to busy doctors, one of the ways to keep their medical information up to date is the use of evidence-based medicine (EBM). The purpose of this study was to determine the educational needs of EBM in clinical faculty members working in Shahid Beheshti University Hospitals in Tehran and the prioritization of these needs. The study was descriptive, cross-sectional for 320 doctors working in four hospitals of Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran in 1390. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to collect data that its reliability was obtained 0.95 by calculating the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. The data were analyzed using SPSS software. From 140 distributed questionnaires, 133 questionnaires (93.3 %) were completed. The results showed that 65.4 % of the subjects were male and 34.6 % were female. The academic status of 55.6% of them was assistant professor and their average age was 47 years and their work experience average was 12.8 years. 41.6% of the target population was familiar with electronic information resources and 19.4 % were familiar with EBM concepts and terminology and 90.6% had a positive attitude towards EBM. The results showed that although the subjects had positive attitude towards EBM, but their knowledge and use of EBM is low, also the greatest barriers in effective implementation is the lack of evidence-based approach infrastructure and lack of time, therefore, it is recommended to develop a training package to enhance awareness and encourage the use of EBM by clinical faculty members.

Background and The Internet is a useful tool for developing a variety of learning experiences and as a source of information and as a means of facilitated communication between students and teachers. The aim of this research was to investigate the level of knowledge, attitudes and practice of The Internet use among Bachelors’ degree students in Shahid Beheshti School of Health. The study was cross-sectional and conducted on 250 students. Data collected using a questionnaire based on demographic characteristics, as well as knowledge, attitudes and practice regarding the use of the Internet. Majority of the students (77.1%) had poor knowledge about the Internet search, but most of them (92%) had positive attitudes towards using the Internet for learning. 52.4% of the respondents used the Internet for search related to their lessons less than 5 hours/week. The Internet usage and knowledge were significantly higher among male students. In spite of positive attitudes about the Internet use for improving the education process and facilitating research, students'' knowledge about the Internet search was poor. It is recommended that mentioned skills training were included as a separate course in the curriculum of BSc Students’ program.

Background and Faculty members are the most important assets and resources of each country and information literacy refers to a set of capabilities that enable people to recognize the need for information and after placement and access to information needed, they evaluate and effectively use them, and since scientific production is one of the important indicators of faculty members’ performance, a study that would determine the role of information literacy in scientific products using its results is necessary to create development and prosperity in scientific production. The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between information literacy and scientific products of faculty members of KUMS during the years of 2005 to 2010. This study was a cross-sectional study. The study population was all full-time faculty members of KUMS in the census. A valid and reliable questionnaire was used to collect data which had two parts, the first part had 21 sections and included demographic information and scientific products and the second part was the information literacy questionnaire and consisted of 87 questions and 100 sections. In this study, the independent variable was information literacy and the dependent variable was scientific products and data was analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics and SPSS software version 19. The total mean of information literacy of KUMS faculty members was above average and 50% had information literacy and there was a significant relationship between information literacy and scientific products of KUMS faculty members. The findings indicate the relationship between information literacy and scientific production, and since only half of the faculty members had information literacy, the necessity of planning to enhance information literacy is justified.

Background and Ideal education is obtained when excellence and promotion of faculty members (faculty development) considered in the university and it will not be possible unless the roles of faculty members (teachers) are explained in education. In addition, by extracting these roles we can reason a part of policies of conditional employment (contractual) and fixed employment, and theorize and reason their evaluation in order to promote and enhance. This study was done in two qualitative and quantitative stages. Qualitative stage is of content analysis type. Selection of participants was done based on the purpose. According to qualitative research method, open semi-structural interview was used which extracts the data. All interviews were handwritten word by word by the researcher. Same contents were in a group and each group was labeled based on its content meaning, which in this study the researcher named it the role of the professor. Ethical considerations were included in this research. In quantitative stage, in order to prioritize and the importance of extracted roles, a questionnaire was designed to achieve this important by the survey. The study results are presented in two parts: 1. Qualitative study result 2. Quantitative study result, in qualitative study, 22 faculty members participated in the interview as participants. Extracted roles saturation occurred in 17th questionnaire analysis, but last role was obtained from 19th questionnaire. In this study 21 roles were extracted. In quantitative study (Poll) the questionnaire was completed by 85 faculty members from six Universities of Medical Sciences of our country. The variables were defined in SPSS software and the scores were averaged and their difference was calculated in each role. Of 21 extracted roles, the role of parents, God reminder, critic and Critique giver, learner and self-assessor are of the cases that the researcher in no publication faced with them as the role of the professor but in this study the participants considered them and in the survey they were important. Motivator role, manager and consultant were mentioned in some of the writings and in official form they were not included in the definition of medical teacher role. According to acquired scores of the roles in ideal conditions, it seems that developing and explaining the roles need new review.

Background and Considering that health care training centers’ teachers are one of the main elements of human-force training for rural health care system in the country, it is essential to improve knowledge and skills. The purpose of this study was to explain educational needs of teachers in our country in Behvarz training centers. This is a qualitative and a needs assessment study and experts’ opinion method, experts’ group discussion and Delphi was used for data extraction and the study was conducted during the years 2012-2013 by two direct and indirect needs assessment. Needs related to learning were determined using experts’ opinion method after holding two sessions of experts’ group discussion (two groups of ten top country teachers and a group of five top experts responsible for health providing) and two rounds of Delphi (a group of 12 Behvarz experts) and a round of ranking. The first round of Delphi questionnaire was designed with 77 closed questions and 3 essay questions in 5 categories based on Behvarz educational textbooks and the results of experts'' group discussion sessions and were sent to the participants. Based on the results of the first round, the second round of Delphi questionnaire consisted of 84 closed questions and 3 open-ended questions was designed and resent. In third stage, a questionnaire of 68 items was sent to the experts to determine the priorities of educational needs. Data were analyzed using SPSS-18 statistical software. The findings indicate that each teacher needs general and special education issues (teaching, management, research method, personal development skills). Educational needs of first aid and relief efforts (of nursing) were determined for all teachers with different specialties and only English language skill was not determined necessary. The results indicate that the educational needs are common in some cases for all teachers and in some cases differ in terms of study field and teaching area and due to changes in the current health package; educational needs are changing and require needs assessment and teachers’ ongoing retraining.

Background and Two important clinical education methods are problem-based and student-centered. However, education of “clinical decision-making skills” and “application of clinical knowledge” is important. Usually training these cases is done in small groups. In this study, new method of scientific textbooks with four factors mentioned above has been implemented in large education groups and its effectiveness has been evaluated. In scientific literature teaching sessions to 50 gynecology specialist residents of a type 1 university in Iran, problem-based and student-centered education is applied from textbooks by asking questions to “increase decision-making skills” and “application of clinical knowledge”. Designing of the questions was done in five-step process including design-thinking, response based on previous information, design multiple choice questions, thinking again, referring to textbooks proper answer and discussion-final conclusion by the coordinator in large educational groups (up to 50) runs in a 2-year period and then evaluated by learners, managers and graduates'' investigation. The evaluation of learners (Gynecology residents) satisfaction was 89%, decision-making skill increase was 82%, clinical application skill increase of scientific matters was 74%, textbooks understanding increase was 83% and answering skill increase to exam questions was 79%. Managers'' opinion (3 people) was excellent about the process. In examining graduates in the two-year period, 2 people achieved first and fifth rank in national gynecology board that both of them considered the attending classes important in their success. New method of scientific textbooks with the use of “problem-based” and “student-centered” education in large educational groups was effective and satisfactory for the learners.