Future of Medical Education Journal
Volume:2 Issue: 1, 2012 Mar

It is now over 25 years that medical education has been integrated with health services in Iran to meet the world health organization proposed “Health for All” Policy as well as challenges of social accountability (1). This integration was supposed to increase quality, accessibility, equity and cost benefit for services as well as responsiveness of medical education (2). In this process, Mashad University of Medical Sciences has taken steps to establish the first Educational Health centre to further adopt education of health professionals according to their future social accountability commitments (3). Many organizational determinants have changed in the past decades. Medical research, for instance, has been nested, internalized and even prioritized within the educational system. As a result, recent medical research achievements might have come at the expense of medical education and quality of services. Although excellence of medical education has rarely discussed, effectiveness of this process has been under constant scrutiny and debate in regard to health challenges, where some doubts have been raised; Structural integration was not followed by contextual synergism of education and services. It has also caused territorial disagreements among both sides. It is argued that not all of the proposed objectives have been achieved. Providing evidence to show responsiveness of integration, which is capable of tackling new health needs and challenges, yet to be confirmed. A preliminary comparison of different angles related to benefits of integration of education with Ministry of Health or Ministry of Technology and Sciences has been summarized in table 1. We would like to bring together the wide range of opinions in regard to integration. This forum will provide a unique opportunity to foster collaborative comments and related research for clarifying and quantifying the impact of integration of medical education with health services or with ministry of science and technology. In addition, to what extend, introduction of effective and transparent accreditation systems for accountability could be feasible? We would update and expand Table 1 after receiving readers’ views. Please send your comments by the end of May 2012 to the editorial office.

Reporting quality of research on medical education has come under scrutiny in recent years in wake of empirical evidence. Poor reporting quality of published abstracts may distract readers from careful reading of research evidence or in a worst case mislead scientists. Main objective of this study was to evaluate the extent and quality of the submitted abstracts to the 3rd and 4th National Conference on Electronic Learning in Medical Education which were held in Mashad (2010) and Tabriz (2011), Iran. A stratified random sample of abstracts (n=188) representing quantitative and review studies were selected among a total of 366 accepted submissions. Their quality was assessed independently by authors based on the criteria explained by Reed et al and also the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guideline. Findings from primary studies were described in 60.1%, narrative reviews in 39.4% and a systematic review in only 0.5% of abstracts. Sampling methods were reported amongst 58.4% and participation rate in 25.7% of abstracts from primary studies. Main aim among those abstracts that representing findings of narrative reviews was provided in 14.9%. Varied reporting quality of submitted abstracts may reflect the gaps we suffer to have a more robust national research performance in the field of medical education. They also may reflect pitfalls in our research methodology educational efforts but embrace national level challenges we face to ensure evidence based research outcome. To improve our national research productivity we recommend working on infrastructural prerequisites.

The purposes of this study were to develop a problem-based learning program for nursing student’s education and to evaluate the program after its implementation. An intervention study carried out on 27 third year undergraduate nursing students in the nursing and midwifery faculty of Kashan University of Medical Sciences. Problem-based learning method was used for one group (n = 13) and the other group were taught with traditional lecture method (n = 14) over 1 semester. In each group there were 8, 2-hour teaching sessions. Finally the two groups passed a same exam. Viewpoints of students in PBL group were also obtained. Chi squared and Mann–Whitney U testes were used in data analysis. The mean score was 12.76 in problem-based learning and 12.21 in lecture group. However no statistical significant difference was observed in final scores. The mean score of satisfaction was 3.5±0.78 (out of 5) in the PBL group. This study showed that the problem-based learning had no significant effect on cognitive abilities of these students but on students viewpoints it may improves their communication skills, motivation and interaction abilities.

Morning reports are one the most popular clinical education in hospital setting. The first step to improve quality of this educational method is to know about current situation. The aim of this study was to study the effect of educational workshop on quality of morning report in Golestan University of Medical Sciences. In this interventional study, using census sampling 147 medical students participated. One day educational workshop held for the faculty members who were involved in morning reports. The quality of morning reports assessed by a questionnaire before and after running the workshop from the students perspectives. The data analyzed using Student's t-test. The quality of morning report before workshop rated as 61.8% excellent and 38.2% good. The quality of morning reports after workshop rated 70.4% excellent and 29.6% good. Neither before nor after group rated the quality of morning reports as weak. There was no statistical significant difference between the student's perception of quality of morning report before and after running workshop. The quality of morning reports in the teaching hospitals were good. There was no significant statistical difference between the results before and after the workshop. Since the morning report is very important part of clinical education, any attempts to improve it would be highly valuable.

Awareness about the actual information needs is a necessity in correct decision making for developing or improvement of information centers. This study aimed on investigating the information needs of students and university professors of Birjand University of Medical sciences. In this descriptive-analytical study conducted in 2009, 422 students were selected based on systematic random sampling and the university professors were chosen by studied by the census method using a designed questionnaire. Data analysis was done using the Chi-square test and SPSS software. Among the 422 cases, 82.7% were students and 17.3 professors. 39.8% of the latter group considered the most important reason for searching the scientific resources, educational and research purposes. 47.6% of the students also mentioned educational purposes. 81.8% of the professors used English language resources while 91.5% of the students used Persian language literature. 53% considered the library resources useful in overcoming their needs. Among the official resources books with 86.4% and from unofficial resources taking part in scientific congresses with 53.4% were the most needed resources among the studied professors showing a significant difference between them and the students. The university professors and students required information databases, journals and books more than other resources. Students used the English resources to a much lower degree for their educational and research activities while the resources available in the university library fulfilled their needs mild to moderately.

A main factor to change the education from static to dynamic situations is continuous evaluation of academic systems. This study is performed to analyze the students’ viewpoints in terms of the quality of clinical education in Birjand University of Medical Sciences. This is a descriptive and analytical study. The statistical population consists of 135 individuals including 64 interns and 71 stagers chosen from the students who had spent all their clinical courses. A census method was performed. Clinical training in three areas of scientific quality, training management, communication and consultation were studied. Mean age of the students was 25.2±1.3 years, their average score was 16.8±0.86. 61.5% of them were female, 62.2% single and 88.9% exotic. Regarding the students’ evaluations, the highest and lowest average scores are, for academic proficiency in Neurology (25.3±4.1) and ENT (123±5.7) respectively, for the Educational Management in Infectious Diseases (29.1±5.1) and Orthopedic (20.9±6.9) and for Communication and Consultation, in Pediatrics (20.5±4.4) and psychology (14.6±5.9), which shows the education quality is relatively good (53.5%). This study showed that the students’ evaluation on the quality of clinical education in different sections is relatively good. Necessary interventions are required in low-quality sections. Specifically, for the scientific mastery, this must be done in ENT, orthopedic, and psychology, for the educational management, in orthopedics, ENT, psychology and for the area of communication and consultation in psychology, ENT, and surgery. This intervention must be done by the university officials.

Medical Education has dramatically evolved in the past decades, and scholarly behaviors have gained popularity. In this study, scholarship-of-teaching activities from Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS) were evaluated for the first time in this country. Data related to all applicants who were nominated for promotion to associate and full professor positions were studied retrospectively from 2009 to 2011. All scores had been approved by MUMS scholarship committee. In total, 85 teaching faculty members received scholarship score including 77% male (77%). Majority was from medical (61%) and dentistry (27%) faculties and mainly promoted to associate professor position (78%). Mean age of the promoted faculty members from faculty of Pharmacy was significantly lower. Most scores were obtained from preparing and implementation of L&CP (41%) and implementation of new educational methods (30%). The time elapsed from starting the scholarship evaluation program was significantly correlated with total score (r=0.245, Sig. 0.025) and implementation of new educational methods. Setting of a minimum mandatory score for scholarly teaching has been effective and should be stressed in future.

At the present time, teaching pharmacology for medical students mainly focuses on the basic principles of pharmacology. This study was conducted to assess the current situation of pharmacology teaching and the necessity of developing clinical pharmacology from the viewpoint of medical interns and externs in Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 2009 on extern and intern medical students of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences. The subjects were a convenience sample of students. Each participant filled out a questionnaire and the data was analyzed by SPSS-16 software. The mean obtained from student's viewpoints toward necessity of clinical pharmacology was 90 percent. The proper time section was provided during the internship training or at the end of the externship period. At present, the students’ satisfaction on teaching pharmaceutical dosage forms were approximately 30%, prescribing writing skills were 17% and teaching important drug interactions were 35%. The suitable contents of clinical pharmacology from the viewpoint of students were teaching the pharmaceutical dosage forms and their correct usages, important drug interactions and good prescription writing skills. Between the two groups of students, the satisfaction rate did not show any significant statistical difference except for the proper time section and teaching pharmaceutical dosage forms. Regarding the results, it seems that clinical pharmacology is a necessary course for medical students prior to starting their clinical training in the hospital wards.

Epidemiology is the base of public health and preventive medicine. This study was conducted to identify the rate of awareness and attitude of 1000 Fars General Physicians about Epidemiology Science in 2010 The present study performed as cross-sectional on working general physicians (GPs) in 20 of Fars provinces in 1- Stage Cluster sampling. In the study, factors such as age, gender, university of graduation, marital status, the length of time since graduation, working place's type with different levels of awareness and attitude, has been evaluated. In terms of awareness, 55.4% of physicians had low, 41.7% had average and 2.9% had desirable awareness and in terms of attitude, 83.4% had low, 16.3% had average and 0.3% had a desirable attitude. Then significant statistical association between levels of awareness and attitude and age, gender, university of graduation, the length of the time since graduation, marital status and working place variables was observed. Considering the unfavorable results of awareness and attitude, paying more fundamental attention to detailed knowledge of epidemiology should be considered by health policy makers through a documented plan as well as continuous while in service training.