Zohreh Poudeh; Fatemeh Karami Robati; Atefeh Ahmadi; Mahmoudreza Dehghani; Masoomeh Shahsavari; Bagher Amirheidari; Vahid Yazdi Feyzabadi
Abstract
Background: Internationalization in medical education (ME) creates new potentials, and links among countries.Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the current outlook on the internationalization of ME in Pakistan.Methods: This case study had an outlook on the internationalization of ME in ...
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Background: Internationalization in medical education (ME) creates new potentials, and links among countries.Objectives: The present study aimed to investigate the current outlook on the internationalization of ME in Pakistan.Methods: This case study had an outlook on the internationalization of ME in three top universities in Pakistan. The most significant components, characteristics, and variables related to ME were identified and categorized. The reports regarding the educational, research and health system performance of this country were collected by reviewing the grey literature, and visiting the official websites of these universities.Results: To improve their competitive capacities Pakistan’s top universities have considered some research parameters, unique strategies (motivational mechanisms for target groups of students, and professors, educational mechanisms and empowering students and professors, mechanisms for communicating with other pioneering universities, and mechanisms for communicating with the industry and exchanging intellectual capital), and short-, medium- and long-term plans for attracting capital, exchanging scientific products, and sharing experience.Conclusion: Pakistan’s success in internationalization depends on factors, such as concentrating on science and technology, the enhanced role of the local government and the privatization of HE institutes, including modern ideas and making changes in the country’s cultural structure, using English as the primary language in universities, designing web portals based on international criteria, receiving tuition fees from international students, designing programs for international students, hiring foreign faculty members, and sending professors abroad to take part in specialized courses, and making efforts to monitor international initiatives and ensuring quality.
Ghazal Mansouri; Zeinab Sadat Rooholamini; Fatemeh Karami Robati
Abstract
Background: Choosing a medical specialty is an important choice for medical students and the healthcare system.Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the interest of last-year medical students in choosing a future medical specialty and determine effective factors in it.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional ...
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Background: Choosing a medical specialty is an important choice for medical students and the healthcare system.Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the interest of last-year medical students in choosing a future medical specialty and determine effective factors in it.Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study of 201 medical students was performed in Iran in 2019. All medical students who completed the internship period by the end of September 2020 were selected by census method. A questionnaire was applied, the validity and reliability of which had already been registered in the Statistics Center of Afzalipour Hospital, Kerman, Iran. Data analysis was performed using descriptive methods, including frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation, and SPSS software (version 20). A significance level of P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.Results: About 98% of students intended to choose a future medical specialty. The highest number of interested students were female (66%) and single (83.2%), with a mean age of 26.69 ± 12.22 years. The parents’ educational level of most students interested in continuing education was a bachelor’s degree or lower (52.3%). “Achieving a better economic position” (91.4%) was the most important factor for choosing a specialty. Most participants were interested in ophthalmology (18.2%). The factors “specific working hours” and “easy residency period” were indicated most frequently as effects on the preference for ophthalmology.Conclusion: The present findings provide significant insight into creating strategies to attract a number of medical students in other specialties based on the needs of the Iranian healthcare system.