How Co-Medical Students Satisfaction Factors Affect Their Learning and Academic Achievements / 医学教育

Introduction: Co-medical courses of undergraduate programmes in Japan are expected to employ active learning methodologies.The purpose of this study is to investigate students' satisfaction with the various aspects of active learning and the effectiveness of active learning methods on students' learning outcomes.Method: A survey to measure students' views on an instructor's support, group work, and the contents of a lecture was given to 60 co-medical students. A list of 16 elements in the three categories were explored. Correlation between the 16 elements of the survey and the results of students' term exam was analysed.Results: The average scores range from 3.80 to 4.69 (scale 1-5), which shows the students are satisfied with the active-learning oriented lectures. Presentation skills, understanding diseases, self-study and self-confidence in co-medical activities wear found to be effective, according to the analysis of the correlation between the surrey results and the term exam results.Discussion: the results confirmed that the active learning methods are effective on understanding diseases for the students. This study has also shown that active learning methods employed by a lecturer had the positive impact on students' attitudes towards self-study activities.

Pneumocystis jirovecii colonization in non-HIV-infected patients based on nested-PCR detection in bronchoalveolar lavage samples

Pneumocystis jirovecii causes Pneumocystis pneumonia [PCP] in immunocompromised patients with a high rate of morbidity and mortality. Colonization with this fungus may stimulate pulmonary inflatnmation or lead to PCP in susceptible patients. The epidemiology of this infection and routs of its transmission has poorly studied in Iran. We examined Pnaumocystis colonization in patients with various lung underlying diseases. Bronchoalveolar lavage [BAL] fluids of 458 patients with different underlying diseases or pulmonary signs were collected between August 2010 and January 2012. Patients were divided into four groups: transplant recipients, malignant patients, immunosuppressive drug recipients and patients with other different lung diseases. A sensitive nested-PCR method targeted 18S ribosomal UNA gene was used for investigating P. jirovecii in the specimens. P. jirovecii DNA was detected in 57 out of 458 [12.5%] BAL samples by nested-PCR. Colonization rate in malignant patients, transplant recipients, immunosuppressive therapy recipients and patients with other various lung diseases was 21.7%, 20.3%, 12.7% and 7.3%, respectively. The enzyme BanI cuts all PCR products producing fragments with the size of 228 and 104 base pair. This finding as well as sequencing of four random positive samples validated and reconfirmed the PCR results. P. jirovecii cysts were found in 5 out of 57 PCR positive samples. A significant number of patients with pulmonary diseases were colonized by P. jirovecii that can develop to PCP in these patients or they may transmit the fungus to other susceptible patients