Strides in Development of Medical Education
Volume:5 Issue: 1, 2008

A significant part of resources in each country is used for training human resources, and loss of experts means irreparable drawbacks for the system. Leaving university by faculty members who are doubtless one of the main assets of universities is of utmost importance. This study was conducted to determine the frequency of inclination to leave the university in faculty members and also to evaluate the relationship between the variables affecting on this decision. Finding out about related variables can help specify possible interventions in the university. In this cross-sectional study, 149 academic members of Tehran University of Medical Sciences were chosen systematically and completed the questionnaire during summer, 2006. The participants determined their inclination to leave the university within the next two years answering one question. Demographic factors, the attitude towards cooperation, and satisfaction from the current cooperation level, the effective factors on leaving the university, were analyzed using logistic regression. Mean age of the participants was 48.2 years while 71.8% were male. Among 131 persons who answered the question related to the inclination to leave the university within two years, 25(19%) had positive answers; Using logistic regression, the attitude of these 25 members towards participation in management of the university’s affairs was not significantly different from the others (P=0.49) but satisfaction from the current cooperation level was significantly lower in the group who inclined to leave the university in the next two years (P =0.007). Considering “current status of faculty members’ satisfaction from cooperation” in the department, school, and university spectrum can decrease the inclination to leave. Perhaps preserving human resources and national assets will be possible if their satisfaction is guaranteed.

Learning and its improvement are the foundation of all activities in educational systems. One of the most important effective factors on students’ learning is their learning style. Being aware of the learning style used by students, help teachers to assist the students for a better use of different learning styles; On the other hand, teachers can change their own educational style according to the students’ learning style to reach maximum level of efficacy. This research was performed in order to identify medical students’ learning styles in 2007. In this descriptive study, a questionnaire including demographic questions and Kolb Learning Style Inventory was distributed amongst all medical students who were attending the first semester of 2007 in Birjand University of Medical Sciences. This tool allows classification of learning styles into 4 groups: converging, accommodating, assimilating, and diverging. Among 267 distributed questionnaires, 175 were filled by students. 68 percent of students were female, mean (±SD) age of the students was 22(±2.5) and their grade point average was 16.5(±1.5). The most prevalent learning style was converging (52%) followed by assimilating (28.6%), diverging (9.7%) and accommodating (9.7%). There was no significant relationship between learning style and age, sex, educational level, and grade point average. Considering that people with converging learning style are competent in solving problems, it necessitates that teachers at universities change their traditional methods into new ones like Problem Base Learning (PBL) and Evidence Based Medicine (EBM) so that they help students learn immense medical information.

One of the main problems which must be considered by the universities of medical sciences, nationwide, is to establish a solidarity system for providing desirable services and use of strategic methods in order to increase quality of services. Determining gap in quality of services can facilitate backgrounds for preparing programs for improvement of educational quality of services. This study was performed to determine the gap between college students’ expectations and provided educational services in Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, 2007. In this descriptive study, 362 students in medical sciences participated. Data was collected using a questionnaire based on SERVQUAL. By filling in the questionnaires, students defined realities and their expectations in five aspects of quality of services including physical, trust, reliability, responsiveness, and sympathy. The gap in services was calculated by subtracting students’ scores in realities from their expectations. Results showed that there were gaps in all five aspects of quality of services. The highest gap mean was in sympathy aspect (-1.67) and then in aspects of responsiveness (-1.62), reliability (-1.54) and physical aspect (-1.52). The least gap mean was in trust aspect (-1.46). There was a significant difference between realities and expectations in all aspects (P=0.0001). Students of higher levels mentioned higher gaps in a significant way (P<0.01). Generally, the gap between expectations and realities was seen in all aspects which is due to not meeting students’ expectations of provided services. To improve quality of services, it is recommended that together with planning educational workshops about service providing and increasing staff’s communicative skills, authorities put those aspects with the highest gap in priority while allocating budget.

Students at university are always exposed to a lot of psychological problems during their education due to experiencing new problems and different stresses. Thus, teaching life skills was added to medical and midwifery freshmen’s curriculum for the first time in Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences, in 2006.This study was performed to evaluate the efficacy of the aforementioned program on the student’s knowledge and attitude to life skills and their psychosocial capabilities improvement. In this quasi-experimental study, cases were 51 medical and midwifery freshmen and control group included 42 medical and midwifery students who were in their second semester. Data was collected using a questionnaire which its validity and reliability were confirmed. The mean scores of the students’ knowledge and attitude increased significantly in cases in comparison to controls (7.19 in contrast to 4.66, P=0.0001 and 8.74 in contrast to 5.90, P=0.0001 respectively). According to two way ANOVA, field of study did not influence on the efficacy of education regarding students’ knowledge and attitude. Mean score of psychosocial capabilities increased significantly only in cases of midwifery group compared to their control group (24.75 in contrast to 20.14 with p=0.0001) Teaching life skills to students in a systematic and organized way, in a form of single unit course, had a significant effect on improvement of students’ knowledge and attitude to life skills, and psychosocial capabilities. It is obvious that education should continue for at least one year in order to have constant results.

Studies have shown that teacher-centered teaching methods like lecture would make the students inactive and limit their ability in critical thinking, decision making and self assertion, and don’t have enough educational efficacy. This study was conducted to assess the effect of three educational methods including lecture, question and answer, and student seminar, on students’ anxiety, educational progression and learning satisfaction. A quasi-experimental study was conducted on a group of 40 nursing students. The course content of medical surgical nursing II was divided into three parts and each part was taught using a different method. At the beginning of teaching with each of these three methods, students’ anxiety and at the end of each section, students’ satisfaction were assessed and a theoretical exam about the contents was given. Then, students’ anxiety, learning satisfaction and educational progression were compared. Among all students, 52.5% were female with mean (±SD) age of 23.57 (±2.06) years. Mean score of students’ achievement was 12.62 using lecture, 14.80 using question and answer while it was 15.10 having student seminars. There were significant differences between them (p=0.0001). However, Post Hoc analysis did not show a significant difference between the mean scores in the second and third methods. Mean score of students’ satisfaction was 3.35, 3.65, and 5.10 for the first, second and third methods accordingly. The students were more satisfied using the second and third methods (p=0.0001). The first method induced the least amount of anxiety while the second method induced the most. Third method induced moderate amount of anxiety. Anxiety decreased significantly at the end of the second and third methods (p=0.02 and p=0.0001 respectively). Involving students in teaching-learning activities and preparing the situation can lead to educational progression and more students’ learning satisfaction. However, increased level of expectancy from the students in active teaching methods can increase anxiety which could be diminished by necessary support. Therefore involving the students in teaching activities is suggested.

The intravenous administration of drugs is a complex process in which errors may cause detrimental outcomes for patients and an increase in healthcare costs. This study was performed to ascertain the frequency, type and causes of errors made by senior nursing students in intravenous drug preparation and administration. In this descriptive study which was conducted in four wards (internal, surgery, Coronary Care Unit, and neurosurgery) in two teaching hospitals in Arak, 52 nursing students were observed during preparation and administration of intravenous drugs between 7 to 8 times by an observer. Errors were checked in each step. The observer intervened in case a potential error was about to happen and this was considered as an error too. Data was collected using a researcher made questionnaire. In 372 registered observations, 153 errors were detected, while in 139 cases, at least one error occurred. The most frequent error in drug preparation was in solvent and diluting (2.68%). The most common error in administration was inappropriate infusion rate (11.55%). The most common cause of errors was inadequate pharmacologic knowledge (18.95%). Most errors in drug field were related to heparin (10 cases), ceftazidime (7 cases) phenytoin (6 cases) dopamine (6 cases), and vancomycin (5 cases). This study shows that making errors in intravenous drug preparation and administration is highly probable amongst nursing students. Educational content should be designed in order to reduce these errors. Also it seems that the strategy of unsupervised medication administration by senior nursing students needs to be revised.

Improving social and cultural status of faculty members is among the main universities’ duties, aimed to encourage them to improve society knowledge and culture. All faculties in a university are not active and effective in the same way. This study was done to determine the selection criteria and the ways to appreciate the pioneer faculty members in order to initiate a reverence strategy for them. In this cross-sectional study, a researcher-made questionnaire was distributed among all the official faculty members in Kerman University of Medical Sciences after its validity and reliability were confirmed. This questionnaire consisted of demographic features and fifteen 4-Likert-scale statements to select pioneers and 11 statements to determine the reverence strategies. The response rate was 66%. Thirty six percent of faculty members were instructors, 48% assistant, 10% associate and 6% were full professors. Among the pioneer selection criteria, the highest mean score belonged to “good-reputation and standard morality” and “having international publications”. In contrast, the lowest score belonged to “age” and “executive experiences”. “Consulting pioneers about the current affairs and engaging them” and “inviting them to participate in meetings” were suggested as the best reverence ways; “providing facilities” and “fixing photographs and biographies on walls” were of the lowest importance. In spite of the general concept of pioneer in which establishment and organizing are significant, the faculty members preferred ethical and research criteria. Financial facilities and earning reputation found the lowest importance among the reverence ways while respecting and consulting them about the university affairs were suggested as the best ways. This shows the self confidence and high socio-cultural status of teachers which necessitates more attempts in symbolizing and improving their status.

Assessment of clinical competencies is one of the complicated and hard tasks in medical education. Nowadays, assessment of clinical performance is significantly patient centered, and student centered. Traditional methods consisted of faculties’ observations, oral examinations, and multiple-choice tests. Increased faculties’ workload, discontent with traditional methods of clinical skill assessment and developments in the fields of psychology and education have led to the formation of new modalities in performance assessment methods with special definition. Clinical competency is defined as the ability to gather information from the patient by history taking and physical examination, integrating this information in order to make a diagnosis, selecting appropriate laboratory tests to confirm the diagnosis and efficient disease management.At the present time, several fields for future direction of performance assessment in medical education are suggested, including: a) Evidence-based locally developed assessments b) Understanding educational outcomes and non-cognitive assessment factorsc) Increase in student-driven aspect of assessments.Attempting to introduce new and advanced medical students’ clinical performance assessment methods according to the world accredited centers, this article analyzed three mentioned directions in field of clinical performance assessment. Improvement of performance assessment in local or national level is a complex issue which needs time, cooperation, recourses and fundamental attempts. However, this is the price to pay if we believe that clinical competency can improve quality of patient care.