Original Article
Mohammad Reza Yosefi; Mohammad Reza Ghanbari; Mohammad Ali Mohagheghi; Seyed Hasan Emami Razavi
Volume 9, Issue 1 , July 2012, Pages 1-10
Abstract
Background & Objective: In spite of supreme goals of Medical Ethics Education it seems that the current Medical curriculum does not have the sufficient capability of influencing attitude and behavior The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the necessity and possibility of including medical ...
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Background & Objective: In spite of supreme goals of Medical Ethics Education it seems that the current Medical curriculum does not have the sufficient capability of influencing attitude and behavior The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the necessity and possibility of including medical ethics courses in the clinical training period Methods: This qualitative study was performed with a case study approach Subjects were the academic members of faculty of Medicine in Tehran University of Medical Sciences In depth interview and focused group discussion were used fore data collection Data analysis was performed using text analysis analytical method Retrieved conception codes were classified as six main conceptions and related subconceptions Results : Data analysis for the necessity part resulted in the necessity of including Medical Ethics in clinical training applied familiarity with medical ethics issues simultaneous education and clinical application of medical ethics issues beneficial effect of including medical ethics as a course in the clinical period longterm experience of ethics issues and teachers behaviors in clinical setting and nontheoretical aspect of some ethics issues Main issues in the challenges part were insufficient familiarity of teachers with ethics subjects and ways to transfer them administrative problems of program implementation problems of educational system the impact of cultural shortage in programming and shortage of skilled lecturers in medical ethics In relation to the possibility main issues were the possibility of including medical ethics in the clinical period training teachers for ethics subjects and presenting them to the students programming and preparing course contents in accordance with the societys culture tradition and religion using experienced and skilled teachers and avoiding direct use of programs designed in foreign countries Conclusion: Including medical ethics courses in the clinical training period in order to decrease professional problems seems to be necessary Moreover considering the potentials of our society it is possible to consider medical ethics courses in our Medical Education
Original Article
Mahasti Alizadeh; Farid Gharibi; Mohammad Asghari Jafar Abadi; Nima Esmaeilinasab; Zahra Bostani; Faraz Zarghami
Volume 9, Issue 1 , July 2012, Pages 11-17
Abstract
Background & Objectives: One of the remarkable innovations in enhancement of human forces ability especially in universities is utilization of experiments and capacities of students in the higher years of a course of study in the training of those in lower years in an updated system named Peer Assisted ...
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Background & Objectives: One of the remarkable innovations in enhancement of human forces ability especially in universities is utilization of experiments and capacities of students in the higher years of a course of study in the training of those in lower years in an updated system named Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) Current study aims to survey the perspectives of academic members and students in the Faculty of Medicine Tabriz University of Medical Sciences about the required infrastructures for implementation of Peer Assisted Learning proposed by the research group Methods: Following a vast literature review and interviews with experienced educational experts the researchers designed a questionnaire about the required infrastructures for the implementation of peer assisted learning Content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by obtaining the opinions of 10 experts and reliability was confirmed through a pilot study A total of 289 medical students and academic members participated in the study Data were analyzed by SPSS 16 Results : According to the obtained results implementation of this system requires administration of abundant prerequisites and infrastructures that can be categorized into 5 topics of “selecting appropriate educators” “preparing the educators for acting properly” “creating adequate and effective motivation in educators” “modifying educational frames and rules for administration of this system” and “planning and supervision to achieve a successful administration of the proposed system” Conclusion: Most participants were in agreement with the proposed infrastructures and the obtained results were similar to those found in previous studies and similar systems Executive leaders in this field should notice that successful implementation of the proposed system requires numerous infrastructures
Original Article
Majid Zare Bidaki; Ali Rajabpour Sanati; Amir Rahmanian Sharifabad
Volume 9, Issue 1 , July 2012, Pages 18-24
Abstract
Background & Objectives: Mobile technology has provided valuable opportunity for educational planners teachers and students to use it as a continuous process of teaching – learning Mobile books are sources of educational assistance that can be installed and viewed on mobile phones however there ...
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Background & Objectives: Mobile technology has provided valuable opportunity for educational planners teachers and students to use it as a continuous process of teaching – learning Mobile books are sources of educational assistance that can be installed and viewed on mobile phones however there has been already no plan for production and use of them in the universities of Medical Sciences in Iran This study aimed to produce mobile books and assess students attitudes towards this model of learning Methods: First a Javabased electronic book maker software meeting the requirements and specifications of mobile phones was designed Then multimedia learning contents chosen from four medical and paramedical courses were converted and prepared as four mobile books In the next step the attitudes of 158 medical and paramedical students toward mobile learning were collected through a pretest Then the mobile books were installed on mobile cell phones of 106 students to be used by them during the semester At the end of the semester the views of all students toward mobile learning were asked again Data were analyzed using paired and independent ttest Results : According to the results use of mobile books significantly caused a positive attitude and enthusiasm towards elearning (p
Original Article
Saeide Garousi; Behshid Garrusi
Volume 9, Issue 1 , July 2012, Pages 25-33
Abstract
Background & Objectives: Inter professional Education for students are introduce as an alternative to traditional educational methods Using this method of teaching had positive effects on student learning professional performance and patient care But students ̓ values are important obstacles in ...
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Background & Objectives: Inter professional Education for students are introduce as an alternative to traditional educational methods Using this method of teaching had positive effects on student learning professional performance and patient care But students ̓ values are important obstacles in this kind of educational The aim of the present study is to identify students stereotypes regarding practitioners and nurses as an obstacle in Inter professional Education Methods: In this cross sectional study 415 medical and nursing students in Kerman University of Medical Sciences were selected Data collection was based on a questionnaire The questionnaire contains questions about medical and nursing students` stereotypes about each other and about Inter professional Education Data were analyzed by using statistical software SPSSV16 Results : Medical students believed that doctors will show the higher professional characteristics than nurses and vice versa All students agreed with this educational program Most issues should be considered in interdisciplinary education including clinical skills training education of any kind of common skills professional ethics communication skills and interact ion with the patients Conclusion: The survey`s results indicate a need for interdisciplinary training of students that should be considered by educational planners
Original Article
Masoud Rahimi; Robabe Zarooj Hosseini; Mohsen Darabian; Abbas Ali Taherian; Ahmad Khosravi
Volume 9, Issue 1 , July 2012, Pages 34-45
Abstract
Background & Objectives: One of the common approaches for teacher evaluation is evaluation by students and in this relation considering the opinions of teachers as main targets of this process is important The aim of this study was a systematic review of the researches performed about the opinions ...
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Background & Objectives: One of the common approaches for teacher evaluation is evaluation by students and in this relation considering the opinions of teachers as main targets of this process is important The aim of this study was a systematic review of the researches performed about the opinions of faculty members of the country towards evaluation of teacher by students Methods: The abstracts of 1750 papers presented in Iran Medical Education Congresses since 1979 as well as related articles indexed in Iranian databases and International databases (PubMed & Scopus) were reviewed by using keywords such as teacher evaluation evaluation by student self evaluation quality of teaching professors viewpoints education process satisfaction teaching method evaluation studies and feedback After a primary review 47 papers from different universities were selected and reviewed by different research groups Finally the obtained data were emerged based on criteria defined in groups common meetings Results : Satisfaction rate of faculty members from evaluation was 478% and the effect of feed backing the evaluation results was 712% The highest satisfaction rate was related to the time of evaluation (mean 655%) and the majority of teachers believed that Education Development Center (EDC) is the best center for evaluation Mean score of selfevaluations by professors was higher than that Was done by students and there was poor correlation between these scores Conclusion: regarding to low satisfaction rate and weaknesses in this type of evaluation basic revisions and using multi source Fedback(MSF) for teachers are recommended
Original Article
Mitra Amini; Mohammad Mahdi Sagheb; Javad Kojuri; Rita Rezaei; Mohammad Kazem Serajzadeh; Vahid Keshtkar; Korosh Azizi; Parisa Nabeiei
Volume 9, Issue 1 , July 2012, Pages 46-57
Abstract
Background & Objectives: Each country needs strategies and longterm plans for achieving its objectives This issue is of a great importance in our country (Iran) as the hope of all world Moslem population Twenty year vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran along with comprehensive scientific map prepared ...
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Background & Objectives: Each country needs strategies and longterm plans for achieving its objectives This issue is of a great importance in our country (Iran) as the hope of all world Moslem population Twenty year vision of the Islamic Republic of Iran along with comprehensive scientific map prepared by experts in different scientific fields can help our country to achieve longterm objectives of the development The main aim of the present study was to determine sub activities of medical education fields in health scientific map from the viewpoints of experts in Shiraz University of Medical Sciences in 2011 Methods: In this qualitative study performed as focus group discussion eight faculty members of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences were selected based on their professional experience in each of the domains of comprehensive scientific map in health sector The study was performed in ten sessions in which the required activities and subactivities in each domain were determined by participants Then data were summarized classified and prioritized for each domain Results : Based on the experts viewpoints the main sub activities in each domain were as follow: Educational equity: need assessment for human resources and curriculum review Faculties: revising organizational chart and improving faculties capabilities Implementing systematic evaluation: evaluation of students and professors based on standards Improvement of students scientific level: implementing a comprehensive encouraging system and socialbased education Developing interuniversity collaboration: university independence Extending knowledge and technology boundaries: implementing evidencebased medicine in the university Quantitative and qualitative improvement of staff: modifying organizational chart of Vice Chancellor for Education Implementing clinical governance system: establishing program designing committee based on the 6item clinical governance principles Financial: improving budget chart Conclusion: Continuous programming by University managers is required to set operational planning based on the above mentioned priorities
Original Article
Ashraf Adhami; Ali Akbar Haghdoost; Payam Khazaeli; Marhamat Afzali
Volume 9, Issue 1 , July 2012, Pages 58-64
Abstract
Background & Objectives: In order to improve the quality of teaching attention to the students academic progress is important In the present study the internal consistency of students scores has been used as an index for the evaluation of the validity of course exams Methods: All scores of Pharmacy ...
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Background & Objectives: In order to improve the quality of teaching attention to the students academic progress is important In the present study the internal consistency of students scores has been used as an index for the evaluation of the validity of course exams Methods: All scores of Pharmacy students graduated in 2007 and 2008 were collected from the of Kerman University of Medical Sciences We computed the Pearson correlation coefficient (r) between course scores and grade point average (GPA) In addition coefficients between the mean score in subgroups of courses with GPA were computed Results : In most courses the correlation coefficient between the course score and GPA was in the range of 04 to 06 The lowest correlation coefficients belonged to sport course (004) and thesis (033) while the highest were for theoretical biochemistry (078) and practical chemistry (076) The correlation coefficient of male students scores was 049 and that of female students was 040 that shows significant difference (p < 001) In whole the scores of basic courses showed higher correlation compared to general and special courses The correlations in theoretical and practical courses were equal Conclusion: It seems that this convenient method for investigating the internal consistency of course scores can be used as an index for validity of corse scores Significant difference in correlation coefficients among different courses requires special attention to some courses for investigating the probable testing errors even though in most courses the coefficients were in the acceptable range
Original Article
Ali Asghar Arabi Mianroodi; Zahra Asgari Baravati; Nages Khanjani
Volume 9, Issue 1 , July 2012, Pages 65-76
Abstract
Background & Objectives: Nowadays improvement of teaching quality is one of the basics for a credible higher education system and without doubt evaluation and monitoring of teaching quality are important for reaching this goal However different studies have shown that academic evaluation is one of ...
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Background & Objectives: Nowadays improvement of teaching quality is one of the basics for a credible higher education system and without doubt evaluation and monitoring of teaching quality are important for reaching this goal However different studies have shown that academic evaluation is one of the most controversial topics in Medical Education and deserves more research and attention Meanwhile the experience of academics as the subjects of these assessments can be very helpful Methods: The current study is a qualitative (phenomenology) study Interested academics were invited to participate in 4 focus groups each including 6 to 8 participants Open unstructured questions were asked Participants suggested different methods of academic assessment and commented on the pros and cons of each The focus group discussions ended when the conductors felt data saturation has been met Results : Data were analyzed through theme analysis method A total of nine different data sources including seven subjective sources (asking from students head of faculty head of department and colleagues as well as selfassessment twoway assessment and assessment by a third party) and two objective ones (students scoring and the academics output) were mentioned and their pros and cons were explored thoroughly and the methods for increasing data quality from each source were also proposed Conclusion: In order to acquire more fair results academic assessment should rather be done through an appropriate combination of different information sources and by considering the current situation and the shortcomings of each source
Original Article
Mohammad Jalili; Sara Mortazhejri
Volume 9, Issue 1 , July 2012, Pages 77-84
Abstract
Background & Objectives: Different methods have been introduced to determine the cutscores of exams However they have been rarely used in our country In this study we used four methods to set a standard for preinternship objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in Tehran University of Medical ...
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Background & Objectives: Different methods have been introduced to determine the cutscores of exams However they have been rarely used in our country In this study we used four methods to set a standard for preinternship objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in Tehran University of Medical Sciences Methods: A prefixed score of 60% was considered in the first approach In the Angoff method a panel including 11faculty members was invited to estimate the probability of passing each station for a borderline student and mean of all estimations was considered as the station standard In borderline regression method a linear regression model for each station was calculated in which the students checklist scores and general scores were considered as dependent and independent variables respectively The station standard was calculated based on grade 2 in Likert scale In Cohens method we set the standard at 60% of the 95th percentile point Results : The standards for the total test in the prefixed score Angoff borderline regression and Cohens methods were respectively 60 4915 4239 and 4274 According to these standards the percentages of passing students were respectively 219% 676% 933% and 924% Conclusion: Using four methods to set standard of an OSCE showed that this approach for determining exams cutscore has significant effect on the calculated standard and the percent of students passing the exam
Brief report
Durdi Qujeq; Iman Jahanian; Mohsen Tatar
Volume 9, Issue 1 , July 2012, Pages 85-90
Abstract
Background & Objectives: Recent developments in basic sciences as well as discovery of novel compounds and methods in biochemistry and cellularmolecular biology fields have necessitated revision and modification of Biochemistry syllabus for Medicine and Dentistry students in accordance with other ...
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Background & Objectives: Recent developments in basic sciences as well as discovery of novel compounds and methods in biochemistry and cellularmolecular biology fields have necessitated revision and modification of Biochemistry syllabus for Medicine and Dentistry students in accordance with other universities around the world Since teachers viewpoints on course contents can be beneficial in improving the course syllabus this study was designed to evaluate the viewpoints of biochemistry professors in Iran about this course contents Methods: In this descriptive study performed from Sep 2010 to June 2011 Iran universities of Medical Sciences were divided into three classes based on the classification of Ministry of Health and Medical Education and from each class at least five universities were randomly selected Then from each biochemistry department at least two faculty members were randomly selected and included in the study A questionnaire including the current syllabus of biochemistry course was prepared for evaluation of the course content Data were analyzed by SPSSV16 software and using descriptive statistics Results : About Eighty Six of Questionnaires Were Completed According to 5338% of the respondents the current syllabus does not fulfill educational needs of students and 423% believed that the current course content needs revision and finally 424% believed that the devoted hours for teaching this course is not enough Conclusion: Since the present syllabus for biochemistry cannot fulfill the educational needs of Medicine and Dentistry students its revision is recommended
Brief report
Tahereh Mazoochi; Tahereh Khamechian; Majid Mazoochi
Volume 9, Issue 1 , July 2012, Pages 91-96
Abstract
Background & Objectives: With considering of significant role of Medical sciences in the health state of society special attention to Medical education is an importance matter In this line the contents of basic sciences courses in Medicine curriculum should guarantee the professional competence of ...
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Background & Objectives: With considering of significant role of Medical sciences in the health state of society special attention to Medical education is an importance matter In this line the contents of basic sciences courses in Medicine curriculum should guarantee the professional competence of future physicians The present study was designed to evaluate the viewpoints of Clinical Sciences professors in Kashan University of Medical Sciences about the role of basic sciences in professional competence of physicians Methods: This crosssectional study was carried out using a questionnaire with confirmed validity and reliability The questionnaire included items related to the effect of basic sciences education on 9item medical qualifications and acceptance in residency board exams and general opinion about basic sciences Professors were asked to score their views in a 3point ranking Data were analyzed through SPSSV13 software package and using Mann Whitney Kolmogorov Smirnov and Kruskal Wallis tests Results : Response rate was 957% Mean score for the effect of basic sciences education on professional qualifications was 1897(±351) from 27 The highest score 2125(±263) belonged to ENT Dept and the lowest 106(±207) belonged to the Psychiatry Dept There was a significant difference between mean scores given by specialists in different clinical fields (p=002) The best effect of basic sciences education was on social aspects of health cares and the poorest effect was in Doctor – patient communication Conclusion: According to the clinical professors viewpoints in Kashan University of Medical Sciences the efficiency of basic sciences education in professional performance of Medical doctors is moderate to above moderate
Letter to editor
Abbas Allami; Reza Qasemi Barqi
Volume 9, Issue 1 , July 2012, Pages 97-101
