Medical faculties’ view about the importance of educational roles

Samaneh Abolbashari,1,2 Hossein Karimi Moonaghi,3,4 Mojtaba Mousavi Bazzaz5 1Department of Medical Education, Medical Faculty, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran; 2Students Research Committee, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran; 3Evidence – Based Caring Research Center, Department of Medical Surgical Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, 4Department of Medical Education, School of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran; 5Department of Community Medicine, Medical Faculty, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran Background: Changes in medical education have drawn attention to student-based learning. It is necessary that teachers’ educational roles be redefined to conform to these changes. While numerous educational activities are listed for medical teachers, it seems that they involve themselves in only some of these roles. We conducted this study to assess the importance of different educational roles in the view of medical faculties.Methods: A questionnaire that consisted of a total of 12 roles classified into six categories including information provider, role model, facilitator, examiner, planner, and resource developer was prepared. Faculty members were asked to score the importance of each role using a 1–10 scale.Results: Participants assigned the highest score to “on-the-job role model” (9.47) and the lowest score to “curriculum planner” (8.31) from their own point of view. They also assigned the highest score to “planning or participating in student exams” (8.10) and the lowest score to “learning facilitator” (6.51) from the perspective of the importance of roles in their school’s programs.Conclusion: Faculty members are generally familiar with different educational roles but they need to be informed about some of the roles which have gained lower scores in this study. Keywords: medical education, faculty member, teacher rol

Molecular Identification of Leishmania Species Using Samples Obtained from Negative Stained Smears

Background: Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) is a parasitic skin disease. Diagnosis primarily is based on clinical signs and microscopic observation of parasite on direct stained smears or tissue sections. Sensitivity of direct smear is not as high as molecular methods. The aim of this study was to identify and characterize Leishmania species among the negative direct smears obtained from skin ulcers sus­pected to CL by PCR method.Methods: Among 81 patients with suspicious skin lesions to CL referred to the Parasitology lab, nega­tive Giemsa stained smears were collected. DNA extraction performed by scraping stained smears, then PCR was performed.Results: Among the DNA extracted from smears, L. tropica was isolated from 9 (11.1%) of the smears and L.major was not isolated from any samples.Conclusion: Direct microscopy on stained smears for diagnosis of leishmaniasis is not enough accu­rate. PCR is recommended for clinically suspected lesions with negative result of direct smear