Iranian Journal of Medical Education

Introduction: The ability to perform a self-assessment as a critical competency of professionalism is considered essential for medical students at the Medical Education Accreditation Council. In this study, interns’ status of readiness to change was investigated in terms of self-assessment of clinical competency in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences using construct of the stages of change of trans-theoretical model. Methods: In this descriptive study 127 interns were selected through Morgan table based on convenient sampling in Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in 2013-2014 academic years. The data was collected through a researcher-made questionnaire consisted of three sections: demographic information, background information and questions about the construct of the stages of change. After verifying the validity and reliability, questionnaires were completed through self-administration method. One-way ANOVA, T-test, Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman correlation coefficient were used to analyze the data. Results: More than half of the students (70.48%) were at the early stages of pre-contemplation and contemplation in the Trans-theoretical Model. A Bout (4/9%) of them had passed the pre-contemplation and contemplation and assessed their own clinical competency. Also 15.57% of the students were at the stage that self-assessment of clinical competency was part of their behavior. Conclusion: Results show that most medical students do not assess their clinical performance despite the fact that self-assessment and identification of educational needs are necessary for lifelong learning. It is recommended that self-assessment be used along with other assessment methods.