Nowadays along with new advances in the methods of diagnosis and treatment, most patients are treated through outpatient services. However in Iran, in spite of numerous cases of outpatient visits, most of medical education is conducted in hospital wards. This study has focused on the viewpoints of medical students of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences about the quality of outpatient clinical education settings in 2007. One hundred fifty interns and stagers were studied in this descriptive – cross- sectional study by a valid and reliable researcher made questionnaire. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistical tests through SPSS. Most of the students evaluated physical conditions of educational ambulatory settings, as average to good. Majority of the obtained viewpoints revealed the shortage of educational facilities and equipments. Educational programs were assessed as average to good in most of the cases, and the teaching methods were assessed as good. Participation of the students in outpatioant education was assessed as good, while the final student assessment in ambulatory education was rated as poor. From the viewpoint of the students, the physical condition of the outpatient clinics and teachers’ performance in ghem has been good but the students reported the method of education in ambulatory settings as poor. It seems crucial to pay special attention to medical education programs in order to improve the learning quality in outpatient settings.

Ambulatory education is an integral part of medical education.The present study was carried out to evaluate the state of ambulatory education from the viewpoint of externs and interns students at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the study sample included medical externs and interns of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences that were selected through census sampling technique in the academic year 2012-2013. The instrument for data collection was a researcher-made questionnaire with acceptable validity and reliability. The obtained data were analyzed by SPSS-16 software using descriptive statistics, Kolmogrov-Smirnov and Mann–Whitney U test. P

This study aims to investigate the effects of outpatient education based on the Khadem plan on the level of preparedness and awareness of the families against the natural disasters in North Khorasan province. In this semi-experimental study with pre-test and post-test, 2185 families were participated in Khorasan province (Bojnord and Esfarayen). About 60 families were selected based on multistage cluster sampling. The families responded the questionnaire about knowledge and disaster preparedness (Dodgson, 2010) before and after outpatient education (Khadem plan). Data analyzed using paired t-test, Chi-square, mean comparison and McNemar's test.
Findings The paired t-test results showed that there was a significant relationship between both pretest and posttest in the components of knowledge recognition and disaster preparedness scale (t=1/26); timely activity (t=2/14); education (t=0.93); and cooperation (t=2/07). It means that the families who participated in Khadem plan courses got a higher average for these four components. However, there was no significant difference between the scale of knowledge and preparedness about natural disasters (t=0.79) in the components of media importance. In addition, there was a significant difference in family preparedness assessment form after training courses (sig=0.02) according to McNemar's test. The Chi-squared test showed that outpatient education increases television watching and reading books related to natural disasters. The results show that the group outpatient education is effective in increasing the preparedness and awareness of the household against natural disasters and decreases damage and crisis caused by disasters along with other training courses (according to Khadem plan).

Background and Ambulatory medicine is one of the most important parts of medical education. Due to its profound relation with professional future of physicians, ambulatory medicine is especially under attention and many studies have been performed to survey its quality and to design some ways to promote it. There is obvious deficiency in our evidence about ambulatory medicine. The aim of this study was to survey the quality of teaching of the ambulatory medicine from the viewpoint of the faculty members and students of medical faculty of Mazandaran. This was a descriptive and cross-sectional study. The study's population consisted of students, residents and clinical faculty members who were included by simple sampling. Data collection was performed by a questionnaire with 22 questions about demographic and educational variables as well as respondents’ opinions about environmental conditions, independent activities, instructors’ supervision, and social training in the ambulatory clinics. The validity of the questionnaire was controlled by content validity with expertise consultation, and its reliability was controlled by test-retest(r=0.85). Data were analyzed using spss13 software. Response rate was 79%, the mean age of 36 faculties was 43.6+- 8.7 years and 32% of them were female. The mean age of 146 students was 25+-3.6 years and 61% were female. The attitude of the majority of the students (88.3%) towards the quality of ambulatory teaching was negative, but majority of faculties (66.7%) had positive attitudes. There was no significant difference among teaching departments. Attitude of junior trainees was even worse. Attitude of faculty members and students was similar towards inappropriate physical environment of ambulatory clinics, but it was significantly different from independent activities of trainees in clinics (p=0.000) relational drugs prescription (p=0.000) management (p=0.004), and supervision of faculty members (p=0.000). The overall attitudes towards the current condition of ambulatory teaching (especially trainees) were negative because of the impossibility of independent activities for trainees, low supervision of faculties, absence of teaching for rational drug prescription, differential diagnosis and management.

In medical education, ambulatory medicine education especially emergency is the most important part of medical education. Aim of this study is the survey of medial students information needs seeking behavior pattern. We expect this study impacts on the clinical education quality, the recognition of student's education needs and better management of patients by medical students. This descriptive and analytic study examines the information needs of interns in the Emergency departments of teaching hospitals of Iran medical sciences university in 2008. Questionnaires and observations were used to collect data from seventy medical students. Observations and questionnaires were used. Reliability was assessed and there was found high reliability (0/80). Chi-square and two-tailed and bi variation correlation tests were used to investigate significant associations among the data. The statistical test revealed significant association between the diagnosis and treatment needs (P < 0/001, Co = 0/576). The majority of the students information needs were laboratories test (84/3%). The least of those were dead persons transfer (1/4%). Medical students were most likely to rely on patient, patient chart, colleagues and printed sources. Significantly medical student were likely to pursue needs related to treatment with printed sources. (P = 0/01). A few organizational or management questions were asked. The students did not pay attention to legal issues. Many medical students prefer to obtain information from resources that are convenient, easy to use and reliable. It is recommended that initiate programs about importance of legal issues and organizational information in curriculum and development of educational programs to promote evidence–based decision making among medical students.

Morning report is a common and valuable method (Gold Standard) in clinical education. It has some characteristics and standards that, when properly applied, will play an effective role in students’ clinical learning.
A total of 196 apprentices, interns and residents participated in this descriptive-analytical study. The data were gathered by a researcher-made questionnaire which its validity and reliability were confirmed by experts’ views and Cronbach’s alpha, respectively. Data analysis was performed by SPSS (version 20) using descriptive and inferential statistics.P≤0.05 was considered significant.
The majority of participants believed the order of meetings, duration of meetings, and venues were at an average level. They also rated the seating of the teachers in the meeting and the type of diseases introduced to be at a good level. Presence of experts from other disciplines was found to be at the poorest level. 88% of students reported the overall usefulness of the morning reports to be average, and only 2% believed the morning reports’ usefulness to be appropriate, while 10 % evaluated the usefulness range as inappropriate for them. The maximum level of satisfaction was reported for infectious diseases morning report sessions.
In general, the quality of morning reports from the perspective of the students was average. Considering the importance of morning reports in medical education, more attention is recommended to be paid to promotion of its quality.

Morning report along with clinical rounds and ambulatory teaching are three common, useful and valuable methods (Gold Standards) in clinical education. This program has some characteristics and standards that, when properly applied, will play an effective role in students’ clinical learning. The main aim of this study is to determine the characteristics of morning report sessions in internal medicine wards affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences, and also to assess students’ view points on the benefit and satisfaction from the content of these programs and the related factors. In this cross- sectional study, the structural characteristics of morning report sessions and the students’ rate of benefit from their content were investigated in year 2010. A sample 300 internship and clerkship medical students were asked to fill out a researcher- made questionnaire. The validity and reliability were confirmed by experts and the calculation of Cronbach’s alpha respectively. The structural characteristics of the sessions were as follows: The average starting time of the sessions was at 8 a.m., the average duration of sessions was one hour, the average number of meetings was 5 times a week, the patient presenter in most cases was an intern, the cases presented were complicated and difficult ones, the average number of cases presented in each session was three, the average time for presenting each case was 20 minutes. Air conditioning, temperature, lighting, and sound quality were favorable. Faculty members usually sat in the front row and with their back to the audience. The main audience at the sessions were not defined and usually the experts of other fields such as pharmacists, nutritionists, pathologists or radiologists were absent. Total benefit rate according to the students was: 55 people (18.3%) high, 152 people (50.7%) moderate and 93 people (31%) low. There was a significant correlation between their benefit rate and most of the structural parameters of morning report sessions (P<0/005). Despite the structural conformity of the morning report sessions in internal medicine wards of Tehran University of Medical Sciences with those in most similar studies, some more efforts should be spent on promoting the students’ satisfaction.