Salman Bashzar; Vahid Yazdi Feyzabadi; Atefeh Ahmadi; Fatemeh Karami Robat; Masoomeh Shahsavari; Ali Akbar Haghdoost; Bagher Amirheidari
Abstract
Background: Despite some obstacles, internationalization of medical education can promote the educational, research and clinical level of universities.Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the opportunities, challenges, and solutions of the internationalization of higher medical education ...
Read More
Background: Despite some obstacles, internationalization of medical education can promote the educational, research and clinical level of universities.Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore the opportunities, challenges, and solutions of the internationalization of higher medical education in Iran.Methods: The present qualitative study was conducted with Brown and Clark's thematic content analysis approach. Purposeful sampling was performed using the snowball strategy, and the data were collected using semi-structured interviews. The statistical population included Iranian students and professors residing in universities abroad, experts and key officials working in the Deputy of International Relations in Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education, the Vice-Chancellors of the International Relation Units of the country’s universities of medical sciences, and foreign students studying in Iran’s universities of medical sciences. The data were gathered by conducting 17 interviews with eligible individuals following the principle of data saturation. Finally, the data were subjected to thematic analysis by MAXQDA-10 software.Results: The data extracted from the interviews were categorized into 268 codes, 29 subcategories, and six categories. The themes identified were "specifications of an international higher education center", "advantages of internationalization", and "necessary items and requirements" in the field of requirements and criteria, "weaknesses and challenges of internationalization" in the field of challenges, "operational solutions for addressing challenges" and "successful domestic and foreign experiences of the internationalization of higher medical education centers " in the field of solutions. The subthemes of "weaknesses and challenges at the level of the university" and "hardware specifications" attained the highest frequency among open codes.Conclusion: A need to be responsive to many present and future needs of our country necessities that the higher medical education system moves in parallel with the globalization process and multicultural societies. In this regard, officials should pay attention to the requirements, criteria, challenges, and solutions of the internationalization of higher medical education in Iran based on the evidence disclosed in this study.
Mahnaz Saadatbakht; Atefeh Ahmadi; Ali Mehdizadeh Zare Ansari; Mansooreh Azizzade Forouzi; Yunes Jahani
Abstract
Background: It seems that by improvement of communication skills among midwifery students, their sense of belonging in the medical setting increases.Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the effect of group counseling with emphasis on communication skills on midwifery students’ sense ...
Read More
Background: It seems that by improvement of communication skills among midwifery students, their sense of belonging in the medical setting increases.Objectives: The current study aimed to investigate the effect of group counseling with emphasis on communication skills on midwifery students’ sense of belonging in clinical settings.Methods: This interventional study with the pretest-posttest control group design was conducted on 78 midwifery students of Kerman University of Medical Sciences, in 2016. The participants were selected using the census method. Of the total study population, sixty students with low level of mental health were screened using Goldberg's General Health Questionnaire and randomly included in intervention and a control group. They filled out Belongingness Scale–Clinical Placement Experience (BES–CPE) as the pretest. The intervention consisted of eight group counseling sessions (two 2-hour sessions per week) with emphasis on communication skills that were held in their faculty. The final sample included fifty two students filling out the posttest instruments. Data were analyzed using SPSS 22.Results: There was no significant difference in terms of demographic factors between two groups. There was a significant difference between the groups in terms of total score (p <0.0001) as well as the self-esteem and self-efficacy subscales (p <0.05).Conclusion: Sense of belonging in clinical settings is required for midwifery students so that they can improve their communication skills in such settings. Therefore, it is recommended to include programs in midwifery curricula in order to improve students’ sense of belonging by enhancing their communication skills.
