Designing a Valid and Reliable Tool for Assessing Academic Educational Environment in Health Schools of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences

Background & Objective: Educational environment is an important determinant in success of a curriculum. The quality of educational environment is one of the elements of effective learning. The aim of this study was designing a valid and reliable tool for assessing academic educational environment in schools of health. Methods: Using a theoretical sampling method, eight students and three faculty members of School of Health, Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences (Iran) were interviewed and 81 items related to educational environment were extracted. These items were classified in six domains including school atmosphere, teaching, faculty members, students, educational equipments and facilities, and physical environment. Expert panels and assessing item impact were used to determine face validity, and content validity ratio and index were used to determine content validity of the tool. To determine its construct validity, 250 students in completed the questionnaires and confirmatory factor analysis was applied. Reliability of the tool was determined by Cronbach’s Alpha and intracluster correlation coefficient. Results: Due to expert panel and calculating item impact, and content validity ratio and index, the tool items decreased from 81 to 56. The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that all of factor loadings were significant in level of 0.05. Cronbach’s Alpha for total items was 0.94 and for six domains ranged from 0.65 to 0.85. Moreover, intracluster correlation coefficient for total items was 0.94. Conclusion: The designed tool has good validity and reliability and can be used as a suitable tool for assessing academic educational environment in schools of health. Keywords Educational environment School of health Questionnaire Validity Reliabilit

Developing an instrument to measure effective factors on clinical learning

Introduction: Although nursing students spend a large part of their learning period in the clinical environment, clinical learning has not been perceived by its nature yet. To develop an instrument to measure effective factors on clinical learning in nursing students. Methods: This is a mixed methods study performed in 2 steps. First, the researchers defined “clinical learning” in nursing students through qualitative content analysis and designed items of the questionnaire based on semi-structured individual interviews with nursing students. Then, as the second step, psychometric properties of the questionnaire were evaluated using the face validity, content validity, construct validity, and internal consistency evaluated on 227 students from fourth or higher semesters. All the interviews were recorded and transcribed, and then, they were analyzed using Max Qualitative Data Analysis and all of qualitative data were analyzed using SPSS 14. Results: To do the study, we constructed the preliminary questionnaire containing 102 expressions. After determination of face and content validities by qualitative and quantitative approaches, the expressions of the questionnaire were reduced to 45. To determine the construct validity, exploratory factor analysis was applied. The results indicated that the maximum variance percentage (40.55%) was defined by the first 3 factors while the rest of the total variance percentage (59.45%) was determined by the other 42 factors. Results of exploratory factor analysis of this questionnaire indicated the presence of 3 instructor-staff, students, and educational related factors. Finally, 41 expressions were kept in 3 factor groups. The α-Cronbach coefficient (0.93) confirmed the high internal consistency of the questionnaire. Conclusion: Results indicated that the prepared questionnaire was an efficient instrument in the study of the effective factors on clinical learning as viewed by nursing students since it involves 41 expressions and properties such as instrument design based on perception and experiences of the nursing students about effective factors on clinical learning, definition of facilitator and preventive factors of the clinical learning, simple scoring, suitable validity and reliability, and applicability in different occasions

Health students’ expectations of the ideal educational environment: a qualitative research

Introduction: Educational environment is an important determinant of students’ behavior and its elements are associated with academic achievement and course satisfaction. The aim of this study was to determine students’ expectations of the ideal educational environment. Methods: This was a qualitative study with content analysis approach. Using a theoretical sampling method, we selected eight students from Health School of Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, studying health education, public health, environmental health, occupational health and medical entomology. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were used and continued until reaching data saturation. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyze the data. Results: Students' expectations of the ideal educational environment emerged in four main themes including school atmosphere, teaching, human aspects (with three subthemes including teachers, students, and school staff) and nonhuman aspects (with two subthemes including educational equipment and physical environment). Conclusion: Educational environment is a multidimensional issue and to achieve an ideal educational environment, educational planners should meet the students' expectations of the school atmosphere, teaching, teachers, students, school staff, educational equipment and physical environment

The Status of Clinical Teaching from Viewpoint of Faculty Members and Students in Guilan University of Medical Sciences

Background: One of the main tasks of the faculty of medical sciences is clinical training. Given the importance of clinical teaching for medical students, the study aim was to determine the clinical teaching status from the perspective of students and faculty members. Methods: The population of this cross-sectional study was all medical interns and final-year students of nursing and midwifery and faculty members of Guilan University of Medical Sciences in the 2015. The sampling was conducted by census method after obtaining the consent of the participants. The scale was a questionnaire consisting of 4 parts, including demographic data,phrases related to clinical teaching principles by faculty members, phrases related to the use of material and educational media by clinical faculty members and phrases related to educational activities by clinical faculty members. Data analysis was done by descriptive and inferential statistics (Mann-Whitney U test). Results: Based on the results, the mean score of clinical teaching status from the perspective of the faculty members was 62.88 ± 5.76 out of a score of 66, and the mean score was 52.11 ± 1.1 from the students’ perspective. Mann-Whitney U test results also showed a significant difference between faculty members’ and students’ perspective scores about clinical teaching status(P < 0.0001). Conclusion: According to the findings of this study, to improve the quality of clinical education,implementation strategies will be necessary. One of the most important parts of teaching in the field of medical science is clinical education as it is the first real experience students have with their future work environment and it has a significant impact on their occupational success

Medical Interns’ Satisfaction of Clinical Education's Quality in Rasht Hospitals

Introduction: Clinical education is a dynamic process in which- students, with presence in bedside, gain experience and interact with the teachers and the environment to apply learned concepts in practice. If the education fails to provide appropriate learning conditions, would be no possibility for clinical skills to nurture. This study was performed to deter¬mine the satisfaction of medical interns with the quality of clinical education in Rasht teaching hospitals in 2014-15. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was carried out on 106 medical interns of Guilan University of Medical Sciences in 2014-15 using convenience sampling. The data were collected by a validated researcher-made questionnaire consisting of 3 sections and 39 items. SPSS.21 and descriptive and inferential statistics (Chi-square test, Fisher's exact test, and Man-Whitney U test), considering 95% confidence interval and 90% test power, were employed to analyze the data. Results: The results showed that 50% of the interns were highly satisfied with the quality of education and the mean-score of students’ satisfaction was 65.68±14.19 out of 102. The interns’ satisfaction rate of different components was: familiarity with the objectives of the course (32.1%), teaching methods (53.8%), evaluation methods (41.5%), facilities and equipment (46.2%), students’ clinical skills (24.5%), and teachers’ skills (51.2%). There was no significant relationship between satisfaction and demographic factors (P>0.05). Conclusion: Given the fact that the students were not highly satisfied with some of the components of clinical education such as familiarity with the objectives of the course and students’ clinical skills, it is recommended that the educational planners pay more attention to these components

The roles of the nurses in family physician team: A qualitative systematic review

Background: There are various approaches in primary health care regarding the key role of nurses. This systematic review investigates the roles of nurses, as part of the family medicine team. Materials and Methods: All published articles related to the role of nurses in the family medicine team from January 2000 to March 2022 were the subjects of this study. The eligibility criteria included original articles published in English or Persian in the last two decades. International credible scholarly databases (PubMed, Scopus, Magiran, IranMedex, and SID) were searched using keywords and syntax. Some of the keywords included “Family Health Nurse,” “Nurses in Primary Care,” “Family Medicine,” “Family Physician Care Program,” “General Physician Program,” “Role,” and “Nurse.” Data were extracted based on Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research type (SPIDER) technique and reported based on the structure of Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Results: Of 147 identified publications by the search strategy, eight eligible empirical studies were included. The results showed that besides providing nursing care, nurses play vital roles in communication and teamwork, assessment, securing health services relevant to communities' needs, education, empowerment, clinical practice, health promotion, prevention, reflective research practice, and counseling. Conclusions: This study identified different roles nurses could play in providing primary health care. These findings are helpful for the replanning or reform of primary health care in countries, which aimed to expand the Family Physician Program (FPP) in their countries, including Iran