Journal of Medical Education
Volume:10 Issue: 1, Feb 2006

Background and The application of diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic evidence inday-to-day management of patients has been in constant focus during the last two decades. This study is an attempt to investigate attitude and knowledge of post-graduated medical students and lecturers towards evidence-based medicine (EBM) and assess their preferences to clinical practice guidelines. The designed questionnaire was posted to the randomly selected post-graduated medicalstudents and lecturers of medical department at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. There were one hundred sixty subjects (60%) who answered the questionnaire. Sixty ninepercent were male, 46.3% were lecturers, and 53.2% were post-graduated medical students.About 66% of the respondents have heard of the term of EBM. Only 7.8% of the respondents havealready attended to a course to learn the skills of EBM and one hundred twenty five (78.1%) like toattend a course to learn the skills of EBM. The most common perceived reason for use of EBM was lack of enough motivation. They have not yet integrated the use of EBM into their practices widely. Their knowledgeis at a high risk of becoming out of data. Education of EBM should be a hot topic among educational planning programmers until it becomes a part of university educational curriculum in Iran.

Background and The research workshops (RW) for the medical students have been performedat Zahedan University of Medical Sciences (ZUMS) since about ten years ago. The aim of the RW isteaching the research rules to the medical students to be used in their future researches, especially intheir final thesis project.This study is planned to investigate the effect of the research RWs on the students’ final project. This descriptive research was performed in 2005 to 2006 at ZUMS. The target populationwas the medical students who passed the research RW and registered their final thesis project. The research sample was 155 and the data were collected using a questionnaire. For data analyzing, the descriptive statistics and nonparametric methods were applied in SPSS software.The results show that 24.8% of the students believed that the effect of the RW on their projectswas poor or very poor. Over 28% believed that the effect was moderate and 46.4% believed that theeffect is high or very high. Also, 86.5% of the students believed that the RW is essential for them. On the other hand, the students stated that the effects of the different sections of the RW were not the same. The section of introduction, aim and hypothesis are the most effective sections which are more applicable in their research project, while the sections of the sample size, sampling techniques andthe research timetable are the least effective sections of the research RW. Also, 50.3%of the students believed that the best time for the RW is in externship period and 39.4% said that the best time is in internship period. Furthermore, 45.2% believed that the full time 3 or 4 day RW is not suitable and they suggested a minimum of a 7 day part time RW to learn better. The students also believed that the practical parts of the RW are the most effective parts. The most important problem during the projectsas stated by the students are determining the sample size, sampling techniques, writing the references and plotting the tables and graphs. It seems that the RW programs need to be revised and the part time RWs should be replaced. The period of the different parts of the RWs should be changed according to their importance and effects on the students’ final projects. If the RWs are less effective due to its time, periods, lecturers or syllabus, it needs to be reformed; otherwise the RWs will need to be stopped.

Background and Job Satisfaction of the physicians and factors influencing it, are the issuesreceiving special attention by the health systems of every country. The present study aimed at revealingthe current status of the employment and academic achievements of our physician an their attitudetoward their job, in order to provide required information for the relevant authorities. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, an 8-item questionnaire was developed including 7 closed as well as 1 open question. The list of the physicians who were graduated from the Medical School of Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services (SBMU) from 1993 to 1997, was obtained from the Education Deputy of the University and Islamic Republic of Iran Medical Council. The questionnaires were then posted to the target group of physicians. The returnedquestionnaires were controlled and the related data was entered into the SPSS software. Of all respondents, 356(67.3%) were male and others were female; 363(68.4%) were married; 260 (50.8%) had completed the military service, and others were exempted. One hundred ninety (55.1%) of the men and 103 (62%) of the women had entered the university using open quota. Ninety four (61%) of the single participants were dissatisfied with their jobs. This was 174 (49.2%) in themarried group. The most dissatisfied (162, 57.4%) were among open quota group. More than half of the men and half of the women were dissatisfied with their jobs Physician’s workforce are among the most expensive human resources. A general dissatisfaction which has been shown in this study should be viewed as warning for policymakers and authorities to take measures to safeguard this expensive human capitals.

Background and Medical records of patients have an undeniable role on education, researchand evaluation of health care delivery, and also could be used as reliable documents of past in casesof patients’ legal complains. This study was done to evaluate medical data recording at teaching hospital of Birjand University of Medical Sciences in 2004. In this descriptive-analytic study, 527 patients’ records of patients who had been discharged from general wards of the hospitals after 24 hours of hospitalization were randomly selected. 18 standard titles of records include in each patient’s record were evaluated using checklists. Data were analyzed using frequency distribution tables, independent t-test and Chi-square test. Items on records’ titles were completed in a range of 0-100%. Titles of neonates and nursing care with 96% completeness were the most completed ones~ Titles of recovery, pre-delivery care, medical history, summary, and progress notes with 50% to 74% completeness were categorized as moderately completed titles; and titles of vital signs, pre-operation care and operation report were weak. Records of the infectious diseases ward were the most completed records (68%) and the leastcompleted were from ophthmology ward (35.8%). There were significant differences between the hospitals and between different wards. Results of this study show the need for further education on record writing, taking medical history, and order writing and more importantly the need for a system of continuous monitoring of the records.

Background and The hidden curriculum has great impact on students’ learning. The presentstudy was conducted on Nursing and Midwifery students to determine their experience with the hidden curriculum. It was a combined survey achieved in two stages on Nursing and Midwifery students. During the first stage, a free interview was carried out to determine their attitudes towards, experiences with, and references of the hidden curriculum. These interviews were analyzed using Streubert technique. During the second stage, a questionnaire was completed and finally analyzed All students have experienced the hidden curriculum and usually found it to be more effective than their routine learning program. This learning modality was associated with more stable behaviors among them. Meanwhile, most of their learning objectives, including positive and negative or group and individual learning were achieved through the hidden curriculum. They have pointed out that faculty professor, nursing and midwifery staff, other students, patients and mass media were their main source of reference, however, nursing and midwifery staff augmented thetraining impact. Students believed that the hidden curriculum is an effective modality for learning.

Background and Acquiring clinical skills is one learning goal for medical students. Clinicalskills are essential to diagnose diseases and to accomplish therapies. The aim of this study is to review status of clinical skills among interns in Birjand University of Medicine This was a cross sectional study, in witch all interns of Birjand University of Medicinearticipated. A questionnaire including questions about 8 essential clinical skills was developed.Have interns responded the questionnaire and questionnaires been collected, data were coded and analyzed. More than 90% interns lack required skills for intubation, cardiopulmonary, ressusitationand normal vaginal delivery. Despite the fact that more than 80% of interns assumed these skills as highly useful, most of them hadn’t been trained by qualified trainers. It seems that the usual methods of teaching clinical skills is not adequate and needs to be modified at University. Using some new teaching setting like skill labs and observational evaluation methods will have an important role in development of clinical skills.

Background and Research in medical science, as in all other fields of science, is necessary in order to maintain and improve the public health. This is achievable only by researchers and faculty members. This study is attempt o identify intra-organizational factors that influence research planning and related interventions in Tabriz Medical University. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the study group included all faculty members and masters of science (equivalent to faculties) in Tabriz Medical University, of which 121 persons were selected randomly. Lickert style questionnaires were developed to evaluate and compare the attitudes toward project approval process, knowledge about research facilities, departmental cooperations in research, and researchers’ capabilities in project execution. Data analysis was performed usingSPSS software. During a 3 year period, each faculty member had, on average, supervised 5.17 dissertations, conducted 1.15 approved research projects, and had 3.4 presentations in domestic and 0.36 presentations in international conferences. Lack of time was the main problem in conducting research.Comparing faculties with and without research experience, there was significant differences in regard of access to research facilities (p<0.01), assessment of the benefits of research (p<0.02), and the level of research knowledge (p<0.02); while no significant difference was found regarding motivations, job satisfaction, departmental cooperation, and expecting benefits from conducting research. According to the faculties’ views, intra-organizational problems are less important than personal factors in performing research projects; i.e. the main obstacles for research were lack of time, and lack of competence in research methodology and problem-finding. Intra-organizational factors such as delay in project approval and lack of knowledge about research priorities are classified in the next levels.

Background and Active learning, combined with computer-assisted instruction, can enhance medical students’ performance and learning. This article is an attempt to introduce a new web-based approach to information technology instruction for medical students. Eight topics were selected to be instructed in Web-based workshops. PHPBB Forum was used for web-based collaborative learning. One oral lecture session was held to make the students familiar with the Forum and their duties. For each topic, groups of 6-9 students had to search the Web, based on a search strategy to find answers for the questions. The students could discuss their findings in their group Forum under the supervision of a tutor. Direct (face-to-face) and indirect (Web-based) interactions among students was considerably increased. The students showed greater interest in participating in class activities. Students’ attitude toward Web-based learning was improved. Adding collaborative learning to computer-assisted instruction, along with constant supervision by the tutor, can enhance students’ learning, since they can have free discussion and express their opinions