Letter to editor
Ali-Akbar Haghdoost
Volume 3, Issue 2 , January 2007
Original Article
Mehdi Nematbakhsh; Babak Sabet; Pedram Rezaee; Ali Shekarchizadeh; Homayoon Naji
Volume 3, Issue 2 , January 2007, Pages 69-77
Abstract
Background : Special attention to medical education and hospital expense were the main reasons to develop a new feefor service program (CARANEH) in educational hospitals The main objectives of this program were to improve medical education via encouraging faculty members and to support the educational ...
Read More
Background : Special attention to medical education and hospital expense were the main reasons to develop a new feefor service program (CARANEH) in educational hospitals The main objectives of this program were to improve medical education via encouraging faculty members and to support the educational hospitals financially Objective : The objective of this study was to evaluate the opinions of clinical faculty members of Isfahan University of Medical Science about the efficacy of CARANEH program in providing educational services Methods : In this crosssectional study 69 clinical faculty members who were directly involved in medical education and CARANEH program were asked to fill out a questionnaire designed in four domains Results : According to the results faculty members did not have enough information about the content of CARANEH program Moreover 60% of the respondents believed that CARANEH had not increased attendance of clinical faculty members in their due educational activities In addition more than 65% believed that CARANEH had not improved undergraduate and postgraduate education According to the respondents major priorities in improving medical education are respectively improving educational facilities in hospital wards (875%) libraries (852%) and audiovisual section (843%) Conclusion : According to these results it seems that CARANEH program has been an unsuccessful program in improving medical education in educational hospitals Even though the theoretical concept of CARANEH had been based on improving medical education but practically the idea has not worked successfully Therefore its precise revision can increase its efficacy in this regard
Original Article
Teamur Aghamolaei; Shahram Zare; Sadigheh Abedini
Volume 3, Issue 2 , January 2007, Pages 78-85
Abstract
Background: Higher education is growing fast and every day it is more and more exposed to the globalization processes The quality of educational Services with emphasis on students satisfaction is a newly emerging field of concern Objective : This study was carried out to determine the quality gap of ...
Read More
Background: Higher education is growing fast and every day it is more and more exposed to the globalization processes The quality of educational Services with emphasis on students satisfaction is a newly emerging field of concern Objective : This study was carried out to determine the quality gap of educational services based on students perceptions and expectations in Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences Methods: In this crosssectional study 300 students were selected randomly and asked to fill out a questionnaire designed according to SERVQUAL method This questionnaire measures students perceptions and expectations in five dimensions of educational services including assurance responsiveness empathy reliability and tangibles Quality gap of educational services was determined by calculating the difference between students perceptions and expectations Results: According to the results there were negative quality gaps in all of the five dimensions The greatest gap (114) was in responsiveness dimension followed respectively by empathy (095) assurance (089) tangibles (084) and reliability (071) There were significant differences among the means of quality gap in all of the five domains (p=00001) Conclusion: Negative quality gap of educational services indicates that students expectations are more than their perceptions and in none of the studied dimensions students perceptions have met their expectations Thus in planning for the improvement of educational services quality students expectations especially in the dimensions with higher negative gaps should be considered as priority
Original Article
Aeen Mohammadi; Rita Mojtahedzadeh; Hossein Keshavarz
Volume 3, Issue 2 , January 2007, Pages 86-94
Abstract
Background: Assessing the statue of educational services in schools of Paramedical Sciences can help authorities to plan for further promotion through identifying schools strengths and weaknesses Objective: To design criteria and indices for educational ranking of associate programs of Paramedical Sciences ...
Read More
Background: Assessing the statue of educational services in schools of Paramedical Sciences can help authorities to plan for further promotion through identifying schools strengths and weaknesses Objective: To design criteria and indices for educational ranking of associate programs of Paramedical Sciences including Laboratory Sciences Operating Room Nursing Technology of Radiology Anesthesiology Nuclear Medicine Technology of Radiotherapy and Medical Emergencies in Iran Methods: In an expert committee criteria used in worldwide rankings and medical education standards were reviewed Then a set of criteria and indices which were compatible to Iran educational system was devised and their weights were defined through consensus developing methods Each school was asked to introduce a representative to collect schools information and schools were visited to verify the gathered data Then schools scores for each criterion were calculated Results: A set of 42 criteria sorted as a tree diagram was devised Main branches of this tree included input branch consisting of National Entrance Examination (Weight: 2%) faculty members (weight: 18%) and facilities and equipment (weight: 20%) process branch consisting of administrations (weight: 405%) and support and counseling systems (weight: 45%) and output branch consisting of students output (weight: 9%) and faculty members output (weight: 6%) Conclusion: This study provided the educational strengths and weaknesses of Paramedical Sciences programs in Iran The results can be used in devising practical strategies for qualitative and quantitative improvement
Original Article
Saadat Torabian; Abbas Vosugh Mogadam; Mojtaba Sedaghat Syahkal
Volume 3, Issue 2 , January 2007, Pages 95-101
Abstract
Background: Human health is strongly related to economic political cultural administrative and environmental conditions Therefore Medical sciences are not limited to biomedical sciences but also include social and psychological sciences This viewpoint has led to an outlook named CommunityOriented Medicine ...
Read More
Background: Human health is strongly related to economic political cultural administrative and environmental conditions Therefore Medical sciences are not limited to biomedical sciences but also include social and psychological sciences This viewpoint has led to an outlook named CommunityOriented Medicine After integration of Health System with Medical Education in Iran conditions for Community oriented Medical Education were provided and the departments of Community Medicine in universities with Faculty of Health and departments of Health and Community Medicine in universities without Faculty of Health were established In spite of various attempts there is still no evidence showing the outputs and outcomes of Communityoriented activities in Community Medicine Departments of our universities Objective: This study was performed to determine the statue of Community Medicine Departments of all Medical Sciences schools and Universities of Iran in regard to their facilities and resources Methods: In this descriptive cross sectional study some inputs and outputs of educational and research processes of departments of Community Medicine in all Medical Sciences Universities affiliated to the Ministry of Health Treatment and Medical Education were analyzed Results: Educational facilities and learning aids of first class universities were to some extent adequate but inadequate in the two other classes Community Medicine Departments in all three classes of universities were active in conducting students theses but they were not very active in publishing books and articles and conducting research projects Conclusion: Transition from traditional Medical Education to the communityoriented Medical Education requires shortterm and longterm programs for improving Community Medicine Departments and making them closer to standard goals
Original Article
Zahra Hosseini Nejad; Seyed Ali Mohammad Arabzadeh; Nematollah mousapour
Volume 3, Issue 2 , January 2007, Pages 102-110
Abstract
Background: Comprehensive evaluation of educational systems involves the evaluation of programs and performances of the whole administrative system as well as schools and educational departments In accreditation model a recently emerged model internal evaluation is the first step and it ensures the internal ...
Read More
Background: Comprehensive evaluation of educational systems involves the evaluation of programs and performances of the whole administrative system as well as schools and educational departments In accreditation model a recently emerged model internal evaluation is the first step and it ensures the internal quality of universities Objective: To determine the educational statue of educational groups in Kerman School of Medicine from 19941998 through internal evaluation as the first step of accreditation Method: In this descriptive study educational performance indicator including drop out rate waste rate survival rate average of study duration and rejection rate of Kerman Medical students admitted from 199498 (n= 486) were determined by using Report Cards of Students Results: From all studied subjects 250 students were female and 239 were male The waste rate of the total examined students was 37% the rejection rate was 35% Average of study duration was 1525 semesters drop out rate was 08% and promotion rate was 965% The rejection rates of the nonquota and quota students were respectively 25% 77% The minimum rejection rate (3%) was in year 1996 and the maximum rejection rate (39%) was in year 1994 The maximum rejection rates were related to the second semester of the first year in admitted students of 1995(163%) 1996(12%) and 1998(104%) In all academic years the maximum failure rates were for basic sciences and specialized courses (67%) Conclusion: Since the maximum rejection rate in all three studied years is related to the second semester of first year and the maximum failure rate was found for basic sciences and specialized courses it is necessary that educational authorities as well as the educational programmers review the lesson arrangement and contents of these courses
Original Article
Seid Saeed Mazloomy Mahmoodabad; Ali Mehri; Mohammad ali Morowatisharifabad
Volume 3, Issue 2 , January 2007, Pages 111-117
Abstract
Background: Health behaviors refer to activities done for maintaining supporting and improving individual health status regardless of actual or present health status There are some evidences showing direct relationship between health behavior and educational success Objective: This study was done to ...
Read More
Background: Health behaviors refer to activities done for maintaining supporting and improving individual health status regardless of actual or present health status There are some evidences showing direct relationship between health behavior and educational success Objective: This study was done to determine the relationship between selfesteem and selfefficacy with health behaviors among students of Yazd Shahid Sadooghi University of Medical SciencesMethods: This correlational study was performed on 309 students selected by stratified random sampling Data gathering was done by using a questionnaire that its validity and reliability had been approved respectively by experts and calculating kronbachsalpha coefficient (078 for selfesteem 87% for selfefficacy and 074 for health behavior) Results: According to the results students got 607% of the selfesteem score 623% of the selfefficacy score and 748% of the health behavior score Health behavior showed significant relationship with selfesteem (r= 014 P=0013) and selfefficacy (r= 031 P=0000) Regression analysis showed that age sex family size selfesteem and selfefficacy all together explain 159% of health behaviors variance and among them selfefficacy was the most important predicting factorConclusion: Health behavior in studied students was favorable in general but it was poor in regard to physical activity Since the results of this study showed the relationship of selfesteem and self efficacy with health behaviors and role of these factors on educational success planning for improving selfesteem self efficacy and consequently health behaviors are recommended
Original Article
Navid Omidifar; Nikoo Yamani; Alireza Yousefi
Volume 3, Issue 2 , January 2007, Pages 118-125
Abstract
Background : The importance of adequate training of Medical students in regard to the reading and interpretation of ECG is obvious and there are various studies about new methods of teaching ECG interpretation Objective : This study was aimed to determine the effect of teaching ECG interpretation in ...
Read More
Background : The importance of adequate training of Medical students in regard to the reading and interpretation of ECG is obvious and there are various studies about new methods of teaching ECG interpretation Objective : This study was aimed to determine the effect of teaching ECG interpretation in workshops and to compare it with current method of ECG training in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences Methods: This experimental study was done on two groups of students using pretest/ posttest design For this purpose 88 Medical students of an academic semester admitted to the university in the same year were selected and randomly divided into two groups of experimental group (taught in the workshop) and control group (taught by the current method) during Internal Medicine Ward Results: In whole 88 students participated in the study of whom 45 were in the experimental group and 43 ones in the control group In the experimental group mean (±SD) scores of the pretest (6 ± 11) and posttest test (17 ± 7) showed a significant difference (p=00001) Mean difference of pre and posttest scores in experimental group was significantly higher than that in the control group (P=00001) Eighty five percent of students in the control group believed on the inefficacy of ECG training in the current educational system while 8380% of participants in the experimental group believed on the efficacy of ECG workshop on their learning Conclusion: Using new educational methods to improve the quality of educational system and to provide some new opportunities for students to learn by more initiative ways are highly necessary The obtained results showed clearly the efficacy of the new method comparing to the current one
Original Article
Seied Mohammad Mehdi Hazavehei; Mohammad Hosein Taghdisi; Hamid Reza Mohaddes; Akbar Hasanzadeh
Volume 3, Issue 2 , January 2007, Pages 126-133
Abstract
Background : Suitable nutrition is an important aspect in every stage of life particularly in puberty stage of females One of the important priorities of medical education is improving the quality of educational programs in regard to the puberty nutrition in middle school girls Objective: The aim of ...
Read More
Background : Suitable nutrition is an important aspect in every stage of life particularly in puberty stage of females One of the important priorities of medical education is improving the quality of educational programs in regard to the puberty nutrition in middle school girls Objective: The aim of this study was to determine and compare the effects of three teaching methods of lecture training games and role playing on knowledge and practice of middle school girls in regard to puberty nutrition Methods : In this quasiexperimental research six first grade classes from girls middle schools of four distracts in Mashhad were selected randomly The students of these classes (n=174) were randomly divided into three groups of lecture (taught by giving lecture) game (taught by playing games) and role playing (taught by role playing) Each group participated in two 45minute training sessions about puberty nutrition The students knowledge and practice were evaluated by acceptable valid and reliable questionnaire and checklist before immediately after and one month after the training sessions Results : According to the results mean (±standard deviation) knowledge scores of students immediately after intervention were 499 (±115) in lecture group 57 (±89) in game group and 61 (±12) in role playing group that showed significant increase [respectively 201 (±116) 29 (±11) and 305 (±115)] compared to before the intervention Mean knowledge score immediately after and one month after holding training sessions were significantly different in all three groups (P
