ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: The widespread developments of the twenty-first century have been accompanied by the presentation of intellectual patterns and theories and new achievements. These new achievements emphasize the skill of thinking at high levels, especially in the educational system of universities. This skill is essential for medical students; therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the qualitative barriers of critical thinking in medical students' curriculum. METHODS: This is a qualitative study in which the content analysis method has been used. Participants of this study included 11 medical education experts and medical students (6 females and 5 males) who were selected through a semi-structured interview and purposeful sampling. The data analysis method was conventional content analysis. In the next part, by more investigation of the data, various obtained concepts will be presented in the form of themes, categories, and subcategories. RESULTS: We obtained two themes (socio-cultural conditions and traditional and unchanging system of education), eight categories and 14 subcategories. Also, these categories were resistance to critical society, intellectual tension, personality characteristics, lack of understanding of society's need for criticism, the rule of traditional teaching pattern, lack of critical thinking skills, ineffective evaluation, and difficulty of critical thinking training. CONCLUSION: Given the results and the main emphasis of curriculum planners on incorporating high-level critical thinking and revision skills into the curriculum, the country's academic education system requires a change in the thinking style, research, deepening critical thinking, and a change in teachers' attitudes toward curriculum designing (goals, content, teaching and evaluation methods); also, it is suggested that the authorities should pay attention to the need to develop and utilize critical thinking skills in the learners' education.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: As a common disease in pediatrics, constipation poses a high burden to the community. In this study, we aimed to investigate the efficacy of dry cupping therapy (an Eastern traditional manipulative therapy) in children with functional constipation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and twenty children (4-18 years old) diagnosed as functional constipation according to ROME III criteria were assigned to receive a traditional dry cupping protocol on the abdominal wall for 8 minutes every other day or standard laxative therapy (Polyethylene glycol (PEG) 40% solution without electrolyte), 0.4 g/kg once daily) for 4 weeks, in an open label randomized controlled clinical trial using a parallel design with a 1:1 allocation ratio. Patients were evaluated prior to and following 2, 4, 8 and 12 weeks of the intervention commencement in terms of the ROME III criteria for functional constipation. RESULTS: There were no significant differences between the two arms regarding demographic and clinical basic characteristics. After two weeks of the intervention, there was a significant better result in most of the items of ROME III criteria of patients in PEG group. In contrast, after four weeks of the intervention, the result was significantly better in the cupping group. There was no significant difference in the number of patients with constipation after 4 and 8 weeks of the follow-up period. CONCLUSION: This study showed that dry cupping of the abdominal wall, as a traditional manipulative therapy, can be as effective as standard laxative therapy in children with functional constipation.
