Do interns achieve learning outcomes up to faculty members' expectations?

In an era of increasing professional accountability, there is a need for both medical educators and licensing bodies to identify the exit competencies expected from medical graduates. Pediatrics department of Isfahan University of medical sciences has defined learning outcomes that should be achieved in pediatric ambulatory setting and both learners and teachers were informed about these outcomes. The aim of this study is to compare faculties' expectation and interns' self-assessment about their achievement of learning outcomes at pediatric out-patient clinics. In this cross-sectional study conducted in October and November 2005 a list of 63 learning outcomes was prepared. In the first phase, all faculty members were asked to specify desired level of achievement on 0-3 analogue scale for each outcome. In second phase, interns were acquired to self evaluate their level of achievement in these competencies based on the above scale. In this study 53 interns and 6 faculty members participated. Interns were expected to be fully competent with respect to eleven learning outcomes. There was a significant difference between faculties' expectations and interns' self assessment in 6 of full competency requiring outcomes and in 13 of high competency requiring outcomes. Interns' achievement seems unsatisfactory regarding outcomes requiring full and high competency achievement and pediatrics department can revised its curriculum based on the results of this study and improve teaching and learning in the outpatient services

CPR education before internship

The importance of training basic and advanced life support for undergraduates and graduated physicians are now widely recognized. Graduates of medical schools in Iran immediately get license to practice medicine without any supervision. Therefore, Clarification of the best phases for training CPR and the optimum mastery level in each phase is very important. This study is an attempt to find out the ideas of stakeholders about training CPR before internship, the experience needed at the beginning of internship, the best phase for training it and the assessment method. It is a survey study designed in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences to investigate the opinions of head-nurses, interns, residents and educational directors [in ten clinical departments/ wards] about training CPR before internship. Respondents completed self administered anonymous questionnaires. The questionnaires' items covered opinions of respondents about CPR as interns' duty level of experience; best course for training and the assessment method. Meanwhile, views of participants were compared against educational directors' idea by Fisher exact test. 32 head-nurse, 285 interns, 13 resident and 15 educational directors participated in the study and all agreed with CPR as interns' duty in all clinical wards. Although, directors had different idea about level of experience for CPR to be achieved by interns, residents suggested level 3 of experience. According to the results externship is the best phase for CPR training and combination of observation and OSCE suggested as the best assessment method. To prepare the graduates achieving full competency in CPR performance, it is needed to implement training programs before internship. Internship is the best phase for getting expertise in CPR. Based on the results CPR considered as interns' responsibility and medical schools should feel confidence about the competency of interns in CPR at the beginning of internship