Future of Medical Education Journal
Volume:3 Issue: 2, Jun 2013

According to the industrialization of countries and development of societies, tests and methods are required to employ people in industries and organizations and make the best selection in getting workforce. Interviews, Written tests, and multiple choice tests are common methods used in employing people. Among these methods, multiple choice tests is the easiest one because of the facility of correction and getting results. In this study, general and technical tests which were held in 1389 and 1390 in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences were studied based on Item Response Theory(IRT) for determining the quality of multiple choice tests and the effective factors in their results. In this applied study, the participants included male and female general and special medicine students in the fields of emergency medicine and euro logy of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences. As in educational assessment sampling is not allowed therefore all available data was judged. The study was conducted on 251 answer sheets of 6 tests (2 tests of atagers,1 of internship, and tests of residency) based on IRT. The comparison of the difficulty level, diagnosis capability, and line slope of each question based on IRT showed that in the first test which was related to residency questions number 1,5,and 27 had better omitted because their line slope was out of the interval of 0.5 to 205.Questions of 3 and 26 because of being bigger than the degree of freedom had meaningful qui squares and should be omitted from the test. Questions number 14 and 9 should be omitted their scores ignored because of low. After the determination of the three parameters of slope 12ag' type="#_x0000_t75">, difficulty 12bg' type="#_x0000_t75">,and success by chance 12cg' type="#_x0000_t75">,for each of the 284 items, and omitting the incorrect irems,ᶿ ability of the participants was determined,and therefore valid items were identified and differentiated in this way:out of 251 studied questions based on line slope, item difficulty, and guess in the six tests it is considered that 7 questions with line slope of out of the interval of 0.5 to 2.5,10 questions were bigger than three times of degree of freedom and had meaningful qui square,9 questions with guess parameter of higher than 0.25 were invalid and should be omitted. In a 31 item test which was related to residency 7 items were omitted because of being invalid, therefore it is worth to plan such questions by which examinees are assessed properly and the intervention of other factors in getting their real score is prevented.

Traditional teacher-centered methods of teaching and learning are passive and affected by teacher's functions and horizons. Today, active teaching methods include teaching students to be able to observe the situation for exploring and thinking deeper about the issue or problem. So the aim of this study is to survey student's views about the advantages of quizzes in studying microbiology course. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 2011 in Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences. Study population was all 24 students of the fifth semester of laboratory science. First, the students were taught about quizzes and methods, and then they were given a questionnaire containing 11 questions. These questions were classified in three domains: student motivation, class participation, and lower side activities. Student's responses were assessed according to the following scores: 1= strongly disagree to or less than 25%, 2= disagree, or between 26 and 50%, 3= agree, or between 51 and 75%, 4= strongly agree or more than 76 percent. Reliability and validity of the questionnaire were assessed with the help of experts and Cronbach's alpha test. At learning increase domain 55.17%, increasing student motivation 62.07%, participating in class 34.4% and decreasing the side activities 10.34%, from the view point of the students, quizzes were effective in teaching microbiology course. The results of this study show that quiz taking is an effective way to increase student learning, so it is recommended that instructors increase the effectiveness of their teaching methods by applying them in their teaching schedule.

Achieving proper clinical outcomes relies on patient cooperation and patient cooperation relies on their satisfaction; thus patient satisfaction is essential for health care improvement; The aim of this study was to evaluate the satisfaction of patients referred to pediatric department of BABOL dental school in 2011-2012. In this cross-sectional study, questionnaires containing 16 questions were used. 150 questionnaires were given to the parents of children who were referred to the pediatric department of BABOL dental school. Once completed, the data were analyzed by SPSS software using Paired T-test and Chi-square test. Overall, 138 participants (92%) noted high level of satisfaction and 12 of them(8%) showed moderate level of satisfaction which didn’t show any significant difference according to gender and age(P>0.05). 48(32%) patients preferred the female dentist, 30(20%) patients preferred the male dentist and 72 patients(48%) didn’t note any preference about the dentist gender. Overall, 142(94.5%) patients preferred to go back to previous dentist for subsequent treatments and 8 (5.5%) of them preferred treatment by a new one. Results indicated that pediatric department has been successful in achieving patient’s satisfaction and especially patients were satisfied with student’s communication manner in both undergraduate and postgraduate level. With a little effort it can be successfully upgraded to highest level.

Medical professionalism is a set of attitudes and behaviors that cause the physicians to prioritize the advantages of patients to theirs. The primary objective of this study was to assess the attitudes and behaviors of medicalprofessionalism among residentsof Guilan University of Medical Sciences, in the educational year of 2011-2012. This descriptive study was conducted on all residents of Guilan University of medical students based on a questionnaire adjusted by the culture and ethical considerations of Iran. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were confirmed by some experts. Data was analyzed by T-test and Stata software. 140 residents from 14 fields participated with the mean age of 32.2±4.49 years old. In the attitude part more than 80% of residents agreed highly to moderately with nearly all of parameters and more than 75.5% of them declared that they applied professionalism principles in their daily practices. Less than 50% of residents used computer software for medical decision making and participated in social services. More than 50% of them had used online journals, had readiness for being assessment with their new clinical knowledge, used the other physician's notes for improving their function quality in the past three years and considered the principles of professionalism during health care production. 11% of residents had changed their clinical decisions because of receiving gift from commercial departments. The residents had highly positive attitudes toward the principles of professionalism but didnt use them in their behavior.

Dental students’ attendance in community fields prepares them to get involved in oral health promotion programs. The aim of this study was to evaluate dental students` attitude toward education in community dentistry fields at an Iranian dental school. 125 dental students participated in a questionnaire survey. The questionnaire included questions regarding students’ background specifications, their motives for entering dental school, students’ opinion about the amount of acquired competency, and their attitude about educational experience in the community dentistry fields. More than two-thirds of the students (78%) assessed educational experience of community dentistry fields as positive. Students’ main motive for entering dentistry school was acquisition of social prestige. About 80% of the students described their acquired competency as average and high. Students with higher social attitude scores and those who reported more acquired competency were more probable to evaluate their attendance in community dentistry fields as positive (p-value=0.04 and 0.01 respectively). students with higher socially conscious attitude and those who reported more acquired competency expressed their community dentistry field's education experience as more positive.

Many PhD students will continue their academic career as university lecturers; therefore they should be familiar with presentation skills. Most universities around the world offer postgraduate pedagogic courses in their PhD curriculums, while such courses are not included in most Iranian PhD programs. Thus at the Education Development Office of Mashhad Medical School, we offered the pedagogic courses for PhD students and thereafter the viewpoints of these students about such courses in the PhD training programs were assessed. Thirty two PhD students attended the "pedagogic skills" course held at School of Medicine of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in 2012. The students were divided in three smaller groups for workshops presented by experts in educational development office. At the end of each workshop, students’ points of view were evaluated using a questionnaire prepared based on Likert rating scale. The majority of respondents (96.87%) have evaluated the importance of pedagogic workshops as high to very high levels. The relationship of the pedagogic training and their future career was assessed as high to very high by 93.75% (p < 0.01). Also, according to most PhD students (93.75%), the addition of such courses to PhD program was highly beneficial (p < 0.01). Students (68.75%) stated that the topics discussed in this pedagogic training were new to them and they agreed to participate in further pedagogic trainings in future (87.5%). The pedagogic courses should be considered of high importance, and accordingly should be included in PhD training curriculums of the universities. This strategy will result in training more successful lecturers and will help to promote education at the universities which is an ultimate goal of the educational systems.

Since 2009, evaluation of scholarship in teaching activities of faculty members is considered for their promotion in Iran. Until now, policies regarding the minimum obligatory scholarship score required for promotion have changed dramatically. The effects of changes in policies on the scholarship activities of faculty members of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences (MUMS) are evaluated in this study. The files of scholarship of teaching of the faculty members promoted from 2009 to 2012 are evaluated. During the period of study, 127 faculty members were promoted. The mean score of scholarship of teaching achieved in total was 3.70 ±1.307. It was significantly different periods in which scholarship policies have changed (p<0.001). The mean percent score obtained from preparing and implementation of lesson and course plans, implementation of new educational methods, and the mean number of electronic learning contents prepared by faculty members were significantly different among these periods, too. The mean percent score obtained from new educational assessment methods was not different significantly. Changes of promotion regulation of faculty members in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences significantly affected the quantity and quality of their scholarship activities. A minimum obligatory score of scholarship activities required for promotion of faculty members has proved effective in progress of scholarship of teaching and learning and development of education.

Evidence- Based Medicine (EBM) aims to bring the best available evidence into clinical practice. Different clinical methods of education such as in-patient rounds, follow up rounds, out-patients rounds, group sessions, grand rounds, lectures, and journal clubs could be held by EBM approach. The current text presents two interrelated case reports; a case report of EBM decision making in an emergency condition which incorporates a case report of surviving an Aluminum Phosphide poisoned patient by placing Intra Aortic Balloon Pump.