Attitudes of clinical faculty members of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences on teaching in ambulatory care setting

Although it will be one of the most critical duties and skills of a general practitioner to manage outpatients in his office or at ambulatory care centers, our present medical education is based upon ward-based teaching and ambulatory care, as one important part of medical education, has been overlooked. We evaluate attitudes of faculty members of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences on teaching in ambulatory care setting. This descriptive study was carried out through collecting data from questionnaires.75 faculty members, 66 persons [88%] answered the questionnaire. About 75.7% of faculty members believe that ward based teaching, alone is not sufficient for preparing students for their future occupation. 51.5% of them say there is no proportion between the problems observed by the students during their study and the diseases prevalent in the society which they will be encountered with later. 75.7% of faculty members chose clinics of educational hospitals as the best place for teaching ambulatory care and the same percent believed the space, facilities and time devoted to examining patients were insufficient. 51.5% of them recommended 3 students for every faculty member in teaching ambulatory care. 33% of the faculty members viewed their not having enough time, patients' dissatisfaction from students being present, lack of incentives of faculty members and shortage of facilities as obstacles to teaching ambulatory care. 33% of the faculty members viewed their not having enough time, patients' dissatisfaction from students being present, lack of incentives of faculty members and shortage of facilities as obstacles to teaching ambulatory care. This study emphasizes on extending the field of teaching medicine to the level of the society. For this purpose appropriate physical space and well equipped ambulatory care teaching centers should be provided. Also the problems of faculty members should be intentioned and educational programes be altered so that medical education creates a holistic and community oriented view for medical students