فهرست مطالب afagh zarei

One of the expected competencies of physicians is clinical reasoning. Therefore, diagnostic thinking in medical students is important. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of diagnostic thinking instructional program on medical students.

The research was quasi-experimental. The target group was medical students who spent their internship in the internal department. The sample size for each group was 20 participants. 20 interns in the three-month rotation of autumn 2018 were considered as control and 20 interns entering the department in the winter rotation of the same year were considered as the intervention group. Students were evaluated using Diagnostic Thinking Questionnaire (DTI). Data analysis was done with descriptive and analytical statistics.

The two groups did not differ in terms of the number of participants, age, grade point average and mean DTI score in the pre-test (P>0.05). The pre-test scores of two groups in the flexibility of thinking (P=0.09), memory structure (P=0.68), and the total score of diagnostic thinking (P=0.4) were not significantly different. The post-test scores of students in the sections of flexibility of thinking, memory structure, and the total score of diagnostic thinking of both groups did not change significantly compared to the pre-test scores (P>0.05). There was a significant relationship between only the two variables of grade point average and memory structure score in the post-test (r=0.46, P=0.004).

The in-class diagnostic thinking instructional program did not affect students' diagnostic thinking in the absence of patients which is probably due to the lack of patient encounters.

Due to the widespread utilization of electronic exams, neglecting their quality is a major threat. Assessing the quality of electronic exams plays a decisive role in determining the efficacy of electronic learning.

This study aimed to assess the quality of electronic exams held at the beginning of the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak.

Following a cross-sectional design, this study included all electronic exams of the electronic test center of Birjand University of Medical Sciences during the academic year of 2020. Reliability, discrimination index (DI), and difficulty index (DIF) of exams were used to assess the quality.  Descriptive statistics and frequency distributions were used to describe the data.

Out of 101 E-exams, 59.4% had appropriate DIF, 61.4% had low DI, and 66.3% had unfavorable reliability. Also, 38.6% of exams had high DIF (easy questions). For all exams, the mean of DIF, DI, and reliability was 0.66±0.14, 0.28±0.08, and 0.56±0.31, respectively. The mean of DI (P= 0.30) and reliability (P= 0.09) was not significantly different based on faculty. The mean of DIF was significantly different according to the faculty (P=0.03).

Concerning the quality of e-exams, most problems are related to the DI and reliability. It is recommended to hold empowerment workshops on how to design exam questions for faculty members to get them acquainted with strategies to increase the reliability and discrimination index of the exam.

 Assessing student attitudes and satisfaction with electronic exams (e-exams) is crucial to evaluating e-learning.

 This study aimed to evaluate students' attitudes and satisfaction regarding e-exams during COVID-19.

 This cross-sectional study was conducted on 620 volunteer students of Birjand University of Medical Sciences (BUMS), who were selected based on random sampling method. The data collection tool was a researcher-made questionnaire with three sections of demographic information, attitude (including six dimensions and 19 questions), and satisfaction (including nine dimensions and 19 questions). A 5-point Likert scale was used for scoring, and the data were analyzed using t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient at the significant level of 0.05.

 In this study, 620 students (56% women and 44% men) participated from June to September 2020. The mean age was 21.97 ± 3.27, and the mean students' attitude and satisfaction score was 59.18 ± 7.99 and 65.73 ± 10.05, respectively. The mean attitude and satisfaction scores by gender were not significantly different. The mean attitude and satisfaction scores regarding academic semester (P-values = 0.001 and 0.019, respectively), faculty (P-values = 0.001 and 0.002, respectively) and degree (P-values < 0.001 and = 0.006, respectively) were significantly different. A positive and significant correlation was found between students' attitudes and students' satisfaction, as well as between students' age and attitudes.

 According to the results, overall attitude and satisfaction were excellent and above average. Better attitudes toward e-exams were associated with a higher satisfaction level. E-exam validity and reliability concerns should be addressed in order to improve students' attitudes.

The aim of this study was to investigate the satisfaction of professors with the short-term course (fellowship) of medical education in Birjand University of Medical Sciences in the Covid 19 pandemic. The results of this study can be used to plan training courses in person and virtually in post-Corona era.

Initially, needs assessment was conducted for the content of the course, after determining the content, the course was held online through Adobe Connect system and offline through Navid system. Following completing the course, evaluation was done and finally satisfaction with the course assessed based on the questionnaire of 34 items confirmed validity and reliability. The data were analyzed by SPSS software version 18 , using t-test and correlation coefficient.

The mean age of participants was 36.34 with a standard deviation of 5.64 years, 56.8% (25 people) were female and 43.2% (19 people) were male. In terms of academic rank, 75% were assistant professors. The average score of satisfaction is equal to 140.48, which indicates a high score of satisfaction with the course. Also, in general, the score of satisfaction is higher than average, in all fields. The average score of satisfaction in men is significantly lower than women. There was no significant relationship between degree, academic rank, age and work experience with satisfaction.

Totally, professors' satisfaction with the online and offline medical education fellowship course in the relevant systems is at a high level, so it is suggested that in the post-corona era, combined empowerment courses in person and online should be held.

Dear Editor The Covid-19 pandemic around the world made professors shocked all over the country who needed pedagogical, content and technological knowledge to overcome it. With the onset of the pandemic, professors who had to take distance education faced a severe dilemma that could lead to chaos for the university's educational leaders. In line with the efforts made throughout the country to solve this problem, the need to design a professor support system at Birjand University of Medical Sciences (BUMS) was also felt. Some efforts which were done in BUMS in this regard include: knowledge support, technical support, forming a support group, designing e-learning courses, development of virtual education in laboratory courses, providing preparation for taking student exams in a completely virtual way and development of a system for quantitative and qualitative evaluation of professors' educational performance during the course. As a conclusion, existing a professor support system is a crucial element for academic leaders, especially in a crisis. Besides, the evaluation of professors’ performance and distinguishing good and poor performance between them is very effective in motivating them and it will lead to more accountability. Obviously, students in this situation also need a student support system so that they could overcome their problems.

The use of electronic exams (E-exams) has benefits in educational systems. The views of critical stakeholders, including faculty members, around E-exams should be taken into consideration in order to derive the most benefits. Due to the recent expansion of the use of E-exams at the Birjand University of Medical Sciences (BUMS), this study was conducted to assess faculty members ‘ attitude towards and satisfaction with E-exams.

This cross-sectional study included all faculty members at the university using a census sampling method. A researcher-created questionnaire with demographic, attitude, and satisfaction sections was used to collect the data. The content validity index and the content validity ratio were used to assess validity, and Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess reliability. Scoring was based on a 5-point Likert scale. SPSS was used to analyze the data using t-test and ANOVA at a significance level of 0.05.

Of the 126 faculty members who participated, 56.3% were women and 43.7% were men. The mean score of faculty members’ attitude was 69.19 ± 9.51 and their satisfaction score was 33.27 ± 5.00. A significant difference was found in the mean score of attitude by faculty (P = 0.038). A positive correlation was found between attitude and satisfaction (r = 0.537), and attitude and satisfaction with work experience (r = 0.002 and r = 0.233, respectively) which indicates that the correlation between attitude and satisfaction was significant (P <0.001)

Overall, there was a moderately positive attitude toward and a high level of satisfaction with e-exams among medical sciences faculty members. Given the correlation between attitude and satisfaction, these two categories should be taken into consideration together.

Storytelling is one of the earliest ways to share scientific advancements and discoveries. The advent of technology has updated this ancient art into a digitalized form. The boundaries between the digital storytelling (DST), and other types of videos are unclear. Therefore, in this review, the process, aim, producers, and uses of DST in health profession education have been reviewed.

This study is a systematized review, which is in nature like a systematic review with only a few differences in the comprehensive search and quality assessment procedure. All studies, whose duplicates were removed, were retrieved from Science Direct, PubMed, and Scopus databases or through google scholar search engine screened in 3 stages: title, abstract and full study. All journal articles including experimental, case study and case report, mixed method, and qualitative studies in English language in the field of health profession education were chosen for this review after being evaluated based on QUESTS dimensions.

In total, 35 articles were included in the review. The studies had been done in health promotion, nursing education, medical education, patient education, social work education, andcommunity health education. In some of these studies, the producers and users of digital stories were different, which is in contrast with center for digital storytelling that emphasizes the process of DST. The results of this review showed that all stakeholders of health system could be producers of digital stories with various aims; e.g. community health, empathy promotion, attitude and behaviorchange, clinical thinking, and skills improvement.

This systematized review indicated that DST has some applications in different subjects in different fields of health professions and with a potential to be used by different stakeholders of health system. According to the definition of DST, digital storytelling involves the process of writing a script to produce a digital story by one individual or a group. Consequently, there is a difference between DST and producing a digital story. Therefore, researchers should consider the correct use of this term in their studies. Although few interventional and high-quality studies have been conducted in this area, further quantitative and qualitative research is suggested.

 Faculty members are one of the main elements of the university, and their performance plays a critical role in the overall efficiency of the educational system. This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the status of effective components on the evaluation of faculty members of Birjand University of Medical Sciences and its association with the faculties’ demographic characteristics.

This is a descriptive-analytic study. The population comprised all faculty members of Birjand University of Medical Sciences (n = 278) in the academic year 2017-2018. All the members were included using the census method. The faculty evaluation software program was used to collect data. The information from the faculty evaluation form, consisting of 15 components, was extracted and analyzed using the Sama system software. The validity of the form was confirmed by experts, and its reliability was computed using the Cronbach’s alpha method as 0.82. Data analysis was performed using SPSS-18 software, and the significance level was set at p <0.05.

Participants in this study were 144 (48%) women and 155 (52%) men. The maximum evaluation score of the faculties was 5, and the mean total evaluation score was 4.49 ± 0.29. There was no significant difference between the average evaluation status of faculty members based on gender and academic degree. However, the evaluation scores were significantly different in terms of academic rank (p <0.001).

Directing attention to teaching behavior and performance in the classroom can be an effective strategy to enhance the performance of faculty members. Therefore, it seems necessary to empower faculties (more specifically, lower-level teachers) in terms of effective teaching methods and teacher-student communication skills.

Curriculum design and development are among the key components of medical education. Today, the dominant approach to curriculum planning is the competency-based approach. However, despite the emphasis posed by the medical education scientific community on this approach, medical education in both undergraduate and graduate levels in Iran continues to be delivered traditionally. As it is highly important for infectious diseases specialists to acquire the necessary competencies for the treatment of patients with infectious diseases, this study aimed to identify and present such competencies through localizing the competencies laid down by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) of the United States.
This study built on ACGME competencies as its point of departure. The Delphi method was used to extract the required items (i.e., competencies) into a questionnaire. When the content and face validity as well as the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed, copies of the questionnaire were distributed among faculty members, specialists and residents. The items were prioritized according to the scores given by the participants.
According to the results of this study, one general rotation and ten specialized rotations were defined for infectious diseases residents. In each rotation, the expected competencies are enlisted. These competencies are categorized differently in competency-based curricula for the infectious diseases specialty residency programs.
According to characteristics of a competency-based curriculum, accountable physicians can be assuredly expected to be trained according to the requirements of the community in case they are trained within such a program

Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) is a long-established tradition for teacher evaluation. Teaching evaluation has many proponents and opponents. Meanwhile, the probable effects of confounding factors such as student and teacher’s gender, student grade, and teacher’s personality traits have always been studied. Given the contradictory results reported in the literature and opinions of teachers regarding the potentially higher value to be diffused with the views of the top students, this study was conducted to evaluate the effect of total grade point average (GPA) of students on their evaluation scores of teachers. The study also investigated the associations between teacher’s gender, teacher’s academic degree and rank, and the scores of teaching quality.
In this descriptive study, analyses were made in four consecutive academic semesters from 2015 to 2016. A total of 7518 questionnaires, previously confirmed in terms of validity and reliability, were completed by students of medicine, dentistry, nursing and midwifery, allied medicine, and health schools. The questionnaires contained 15 items scored on a 5-point Likert scale. Data were analyzed in SPSS software version 16 using ANOVA and Scheffé’s post-hoc test. The level of significance was considered at 0.05 for all statistical tests.
The findings showed that teacher evaluation scores varied significantly across different GPA categories. The difference was evident between the categories A and C as well as B and C. The relationship between gender, academic rank and degree of the teacher, and teaching quality score was not significant in any discipline.
Significant differences were found between the categories A and C as well as B and C. However, given the concerns about inflation or trade of scores and the possibility of ignoring the students by teachers if only assessment by top students is considered, it is better to use 360-degree evaluation which is a multi-dimensional evaluation. This prevents from probable biases in student surveys.