Journal of Medical Education
Volume:4 Issue: 3, Agu 2002

Background It is known that basic science and general courses play a vital role in training of medical students. The medical students' comprehensive basic science examination (CBS£) scores seem to be a potential tool for predicting their comprehensive pre-internship examination (CPIE) scores.Purpose To evaluate the predictive validity of medical students· CBSE scores for predicting their CPIE scores.Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study on 103 medical students of Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences registered for the first time as medical student in 1988. 1992 and 1996. We used a regression analysis to study the predictive validity of these students· CBSE mean scores for predicting their CPIE mean scores. Results Fifty-two students were male and 51 students were female. CBSE mean scores were 121.22±15.8 for all of the students, 119.70±14.82 for the female students and 122.71=16.71 for the male students. The Pearson correlation coefficient between CBS£ and CPIE mean scores was 0.598. Simple linear regression showed that CBSE mean score had 0.358 predictability for CPIE mean score: however. 1he results showed that correlation coefficient and predictive validity progressively decreased during the period between 1988 and 1996. Conclusion Our results reflected the usefulness of CBSE mean score for predicting CPIE mean score. This should be confirmed in studies in other medical universities.Keywords predictive validity, comprehensive basic science exam, comprehensive preinternship exam

Background In the field of education, a great deal of quality improvement is remained to be achieved Assessment of educational courses appears to be necessary for quality improvement in all curriculums, therefore studies for assessment of educational outcomes and impacts are of high priority. In a dentistry faculty, the mouth and dental health care among dentistry students can be considered as a potential indicator of students' educational achievement.Purpose To study knowledge, attitude and practice impact on mouth and dental health care among dentistry faculty students both before and after passing practical periodontic courses in Shahed University of Medical Sciences during academic year 2001-2002Methods In this cross-sectional study 140 students of dentistry faculty of Shahed University of Medical Sciences took part. Necessary data were collected by means of a questionnaire. Knowledge of the subjects on mouth and dental health care were assessed by 10 close-ended questions and their altitude on mouth and dental health care were assessed by 5 Likert scale questions. Assessment of practice was performed in a 3-step researcher-administrated interview.Results Demographic data gathered via questionnaires indicated that 49.6 % {6-1 students) of the students who took part in the study were male and 50.4% (65 students) were female. of our participants, 59.7% were admitted through Shahed quota, while the rest were admitted through free quota. There was no significant difference in students' knowledge, attitude and practice on mouth and dental health care between the students who had not passed practical courses in periodontics and those who had passed these courses.Conclusions There was no significant association between knowledge, altitude and practice on mouth and dental health care and passing practical courses in periodontics among dentistry faculty students in Shahed University of Medical Science. Our results suggest that students' practice on mouth and dental health care might be affected by other factors like mass media, but quality of periodontics courses and practical courses in periodontics should be improved as these courses can promote knowledge, attitude and practice impact on the dentistry students, mouth and dental health care.Keywords knowledge, attitude, practice, practical course, periodontics, mouth and dental health care

Background The imbalance between the public needs and the number of the medical graduates has created problems in recruitment of young physicians who are trained to provide medical and health services in the country. Purpose To assess the attitudes of interns at Qazvin University of Medical Sciences toward'i their future profession in 200I-2002.Methods This descriptive study assesses the viewpoints of all I20 interns through a self-administered questionnaire. Results The findings indicated that 77.5% of the students were in the age range of 22 to 27 with the average of 26. ./ years. of all cases 67.5% wished to continue their training to become a specialist and 6.7% decided to work as a general practitioner. of all students, 95.8% expected their future income to be low, to an extent which will not provide a comfortable life for them. of all cases. 89.2% believed that the present system of medical education does not give them the necessary capabilities and skills to practice efficiently in the future.Conclusion. The students· viewpoints on fulfillment of their economic needs and provision of a comfortable life for them and their families were negative; however, regarding fulfillment of their mental and emotional needs and participation in a scientific field, they were positive. Key word: intern, Medical profession

Background Using students 'judgment through opinion questionnaires is one important tool in determining the faculty members' success in the education process.Purpose To determine the factors affecting faculty evaluation by students.Methods In this cross sectional study the students in different years from all schools of Kerman University of Medical Sciences (KUMS) participated. Data was gathered from 505 students by a questionnaire consisting of two parts; the first part included the demographic data of the students and faculty members and the second consisted of 10 questions in Likert 5-level scale. These questions were based on the formal evaluation questionnaire developed by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education were modified after consulting with the experts of KUMS and determining the weight of each choice by the trim mean method. The validity of the questionnaire was determined by considering the experts' opinion through Delphi method and by using the content validity method (r=0.89). The reliability of the questionnaire was determined by a repeat test (r =0.91).Results Using SPSS software, data were analyzed by central and distribution indices with T-test. univariate test and regression test. In general. the majority of faculty members (69.8%) have u "good" rating in education, in the viewpoint of students. In assessment of /he effective factors, these variables were found to have a significant influence: the academic degree of the faculty member (P<0.001), faculty member's sex (P<0.01), the subject (P<0.05), student ·s age (P<0.05) and final score (P<0.01). the instructor's dedication and interest in the subject {P<0.001) and instructor's strictness (P<0.02), so that the higher scientific degrees, male faculty members, specific subjects and dedicated faculty members received a better score and strictness had a negative impact.Conclusion The students' evaluation of faculty members is affected by some factors, which reflects the complex nature of evaluation, the necessity of caution and attention in making conclusions and judging on the basis of a multi-dimensional assessment of the educational performance of the faculty members.Keywords faculty evaluation, Effective factors, Student faculty evaluation

Background The aim of using distracters in multiple-choice questions (MCQs) is to distract those who don't know the correct answer of the question. The MCQs must be designed in a way that the students who have reached the pre-determined educational objectives, have a better chance in finding the correc1 answer than those who have not. Therefore, a question has an appropriate efficacy when more /ow-grade students are attracted to the distracters than high-grade students.Purpose Considering the important role of distracters in differentiating between low and high-grade students, this research studies the distracters in the multiple-choice tests (MCTs) given in Mashad Medical School in the first semester of 1001-2002.Method In this descriptive study, the data of 21 MCTs performed in one semester were collected and recorded by Optical Mark Reader (OMR). From 128-1 questions, 6-12 MCQ ques1io11s were sampled randomly, and the numbers of low and high-grade students choosing the distracters were compared and analyzed using SPSS software.Results The efficacy of 45.9% of distracters was ''relatively weak" to "extremely weak", with "relatively weak", "weak", "very weak" and "extremely weak" distractors having a prevalence of 11.4%, 10%, 15.1% and 9.4% respectively. Extremely weak distracters were those that had a negative impact. Which means the high-grade students were more attracted than the low-grades. Of the MCQs. -12.7% had one. and one third of the questions had two weak distracters. Among all 6- questions. only 15.1% had three good distracters.Conclusion Our study showed that more than half of he distracters had a weak quality. So we suggested that before performing a test, the experts ' opinion about the designed questions should be obtained and considered to minimize the technical problems of the questions. Keywords multiple-choice test, distracter.

Toxicology as a multidisciplinary field, provides career opportunities for graduates with medical, or veterinarian. pharmacological, pharmaceutical. biological, microbiological, molecular biological, chemical, biochemical, and genetic backgrounds. Today, however, specialists with a university degree in toxicology or a postgraduate training in toxicology have a clear advantage. Postgraduate diplomas are now available in most industrial and even developing countries including Iran. In addition. to be successful, modern toxicologists in the industrial sector also need a good understanding of how to turn a scientific project into a successful product, an expertise generally acquired by on-/he-job training. The rapid progress in essentially all toxicology-relevant sciences makes continuous training mandatory. On the other hand, the governmental health care sector provides rewarding career opportunities for professional toxicologists. Toxicologists in this sector evaluate diverse data on chemicals, assess the risks for exposed populations and assist in the articulation of policies for mc11wgement of those risks. The latter aspects require extensive experience in health care and environmental fields, awareness of international policies and developments. and ability to communicate risk to politicians and to the public. Education of toxicologists for the governmental health care sector must reflect the broad general and specialist knowledge required.

In the process of learning basic biochemistry, as in any a/her area, much extra class work is required for students before basic concepts. such as !hose concerning protein structure and properties, are firmly seuled. To reach this end we have developed a simple instruction method to teach protein structure in, biochemistry courses for medical students. The objectives of this method are to illustrate some aspects of to allow students to gain competence by learning a number of biochemical and 'collar biology teaching techniques easy enough to carry out to ensure a successful outcome: and to u1ow students to become skilled in processing, presenting and discussing data obtained directly by themselves. or furnished by the instructor. The method of this paper can be successfully used to illustrate, explain and characterize most of the physical and chemical properties of proteins.