[Comparative study of organizational learning capabilities as an organizational source of knowledge in public and private hospitals of Tehran: nurses perspectives]

Hospitals are among the most interactive organizations in which the rate of knowledge transfer and learning is considerably high. Comparison of the level of organizational learning between public and private hospitals can be useful for managers to select organizational learning strategies aiming at improving service delivery and organizational behavior. This cross-sectional survey was conducted by participating 200 nurses, selected randomly from 7 public and 3 private hospitals at initial stage. The fulfilled the questionnaire and then the researchers calculated sample size based on the collected data. Finally, 260 other samples were selected from 7 public and 5 private hospitals. Factor analysis and mean comparison were used to analyze data. The findings showed that in private hospitals, the levels of 4 organizational learning capabilities [managerial commitment, system perspective, openness and experimentation, and knowledge transfer and integration] were significantly higher than public hospital. But, all organizational learning capabilities in both public and private hospitals were below the expected average. "Knowledge transfer and integration" and "managerial commitment" had the highest and the lowest average, respectively in both public and private hospitals and in overall. With due attention to the fact that "knowledge transfer and integration" had the highest average in both public and private hospitals, we suggest that organizational knowledge and other capabilities of the nurses and other personnel could be increased by using this capability

[Electronic learning in medical education]

Medical education in Iran consists of undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing medical education [CME], like most other countries. Experts in medical education, in various meetings, recommended strategies to implement fundamental changes and improve medical education to alleviate current defects in medical education. One of the most important suggestions was to develop information technology in the field of medical education. Nowadays, most colleges in developed countries use online systems for communication with students, and also most courses are presented as online. These changes have been occurred in Iran, and medical schools of Iran have implemented electronic learning [E-learning] in their strategic planning. Efforts have been made in some universities to implement E-learning in CME courses. This may advance E-learning in medical education, especially in basic sciences. In this study, more than 50 international articles, 10 domestic articles and 80 websites related with E-learning in medical education were evaluated. Our findings showed that E-learning has been a routine program in world medical universities. Some Universities, such as North American Universities, have implemented E-learning in the education of all courses of basic sciences. Some Iranian Universities have set up CME programs in this topic, and have presented some courses as E-learning