[Need assessment for master of science in family nursing curriculum: using Delphi technique]

Our country needs nurses who are expert in family nursing. Accordingly, we need to determine their professional tasks as a basis for future planning regarding establishment of family nursing discipline in Iran. This study was a need assessment for family nursing curriculum using the viewpoints of nursing experts. It was a need assessment study using Delphi technique. Study population included nursing experts such as members of nursing board in Ministry of Health and Medical Education, vice dean for education and head of the departments in nursing schools in Iran who were selected through cluster multistage sampling and 93 experts participated in the first stage of the study. Data was gathered through Delphi technique and using questionnaire in two stages. The questionnaires were send by post. Focus groups viewpoints were used to complete and finalize the tasks. Data was analyzed using SPSS- PC by calculating mean and standard deviation for each statement. In the first stage of Delphi 56 items in care domain, 34 items in consultation domain, 14 items in research domain and 15 items in management domain were determined. In the second phase of Delphi all tasks received a mean score more than4. At last, 15, 11, 5, and 5 tasks were determined and finalized in care, consultation, and research and management domains, respectively. Findings of the study revealed the importance of family nursing role in care domain especially regarding the care of patients suffering from chronic diseases. The results of this study could be used in curriculum development of family nursing discipline

Developing a holistic accreditation system for medical universities of the Islamic Republic of Iran

This report describes the steps in the development of an accreditation system for medical universities in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The national accreditation project, supported by the government, was performed from 2001 to 2005. The project was carried out in 3 main phases, each phase including a number of tasks. After a review of the international literature on accreditation and through national consensus, a set of national institutional accreditation standards was developed, including 95 standards and 504 indicators in 10 areas. By complying with accepted national standards, Iranian medical universities will play an important role in promoting health system performance

[ analysis of qualitative study data using software]

The use of softwares for analyzing research data is increasing everyday. Making use of softwares specified for the analysis of qualitative data has begun since 20 years ago, and has been exposed to so many changes so far. Researchers have used the existing softwares such as word processors to facilitate the analysis practice, even before using specific softwares. Different softwares have several capabilities from encoding the text and searching through the text for repetitions of the codes to proposing hypothesis. Furthermore, other fe Autres such as determining the codes occurring simultaneously or at the same place, finding the associations between the codes, attaching notes to the codes, searching the notes to find common instances, and displaying data in different modes are some other potentialities of these softwares. Making use of these fe Autres leads to saving time, managing large volume of information, enhancing the accuracy and validity of the data, and possibility of performing more complicated analysis. Beside these benefits, there are some limitations in using these softwares such as uniformity of the approaches used to analyze qualitative data, emphasizing too much on coding the data, separating the researcher from data, and the trading aspects of the softwares. Presence of such benefits and limitations brings up the question that whether or not to use these softwares for analyzing qualitative data. Although there is no clear answer to this question, it is the researcher's job to decide for this issue, considering different aspects of his own study. There are so many points to consider in choosing the type of software which will be mentioned in this article. In general, the available softwares are just to facilitate the analysis process, not to analyze the data by themselves. In other words, the analysis and interpretation of the qualitative data is always the researcher's main responsibility

[Using private medical centers in training medical students: the viewpoints of the faculty members of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences]

Taking advantage of faculty members' private offices for educational intentions has been recommended as a strategy for students' attendance in society and their encounter with patient management. This study was performed to investigate the viewpoints of administrators and clinical faculty members toward using private medical centers for training students. This descriptive study was carried out on all clinical faculty members who owned private offices. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire with five point Likert scale and including 20 items about using private medical centers. Data was analyzed by SPSS software using methods for descriptive statistics, t-test, and Pearson. In total, 173 persons returned the questionnaires. The mean of the total score of the questionnaires was 3.02 +/- 0.78 out of five. The most agreement was on the role of in-office education on identifying students' future job, teaching new cases to them, and promoting researches and studies in medical sciences. Most of the respondents believed that education in private offices could reduce offices' income, the number of patients, and patients' confidence in physician. Faculty members believed that using private medical centers could promote the education of clerkship students, interns, and residents, but the total mean shows that their general view is not that positive. It is recommended to conduct interventional studies concerning the effect of training in private centers on learners' knowledge and skills

efficacy of new method of cardiopulmonary resuscitation training in promoting knowledge and skills of 4[th] year medical students

Educational goals of CPR [CardioPulmonary Resuscitation] training are not fully achieved by traditional methods. The aim of this study was to present a new method for teaching CPR to medical students and also to compare the effect of this new method on knowledge and skills of medical students with current CPR training method. In this quasi-experimental study, Forty 4th year medical students were divided into two experiment and control groups randomly. The control group passed the current method of CPR training and the experiment group participated in a 3 day workshop [first day: theoretical session, second day: group work and practice on model, third day: confrontation to real environment]. The test for assessing knowledge and skills was held before and after the workshop. Then the mean scores were compared using independent t-test and paired t-test Comparing the mean scores of pre-test and post-test showed a significant difference in both knowledge and skills of the experiment group. The mean of the difference between pre-test and post-test scores of the two groups in theoretical and practical exams were also compared which revealed a significant difference. Considering the higher mean of difference between pre and post tests in the experiment group, it seems that educational intervention enhanced the knowledge and proficiency of medical students in performing CPR. Some reasons could be successive theoretical and practical sessions, devoting much more time to practice, confrontation with real environment, and education through group work

How does teaching clinical skills influence instructors' professional behaviour?

Purpose: "Introduction to Clinical Medicine" in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Health Services is an initiative in which general practitioners work as instructors and have the opportunity to experience teaching in addition to clinical practice. Since teaching, affects both teacher and students, this study aims to assess the influence of teaching clinical skills on the instructors' psychological, social and professional behavior

Methods: this was performed as a qualitative study. The research population consisted of instructors of "Introduction to Clinical Medicine" who were all general practitioners and acted as facilitator in small groups working on physical examination and case discussion. The data collecting tool was a semi-structured interview which was recorded on the tape. Then, the interviews were transcribed and confirmed by interviewees at the end. 10 instructors were interviewed. The data were analysed according to Colaizzi model

Results: after coding the data to 38 main subjects, they were classified into three main categories including professional, psychological and social effects. The influence of teaching on professional performance included performing a thorough and correct physical examination, taking a detailed and correct history, increasing decision making ability and increasing professional knowledge. Some of the psychological effects were increasing self-confidence, job satisfaction and morale. The social effects of teaching were increasing social contacts, having a relationship with an academic environment and having a respectful job

Conclusion: considering the positive effects of teaching on instructors, teaching clinical skills by general practitioners can increase general practitioners knowledge and clinical skills and improve their morale. It is recommended to train general practitioners both for teaching skills and clinical skills and consider this, as an opportunity for physicians' continuing education