Iranian Journal of Medical Education

Introduction: For any medical student, bedside training plays a pivotal role that could integrate his clinical skills and theoretical knowledge. Every efficient educational system requires regular evaluation and medical education is not an exception. The purpose of this study was to assess major clinical training fields from the perspective of medical students in Isfahan School of Medicine.
Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study assessed the clinical training fields (training round and outpatient training) of the surgery, internal medicine, gynecology, and pediatrics departments of teaching hospitals affiliated with Isfahan University of Medical Sciences from the perspective of medical students in the first semester of the academic year 2015-16. The study was conducted in the first week of the program on 61 groups of medical students selected by means of census method including 21 groups of internal medicine, 20 groups of surgery, 7 groups of gynecology, and 13 groups of pediatrics medical students. Data were collected by the notebook of clinical training monitoring to record the number of medical students attended, hours attended, hours of training by teachers, and the number of visited patients per day for a week categorized by the training fields. The data were analyzed in Excel using mean and standard deviation.
Results: Daily training hours of the medical students (training rounds and outpatient training) were 2.5±0.53 (internal medicine), 2.75±0.32 (surgery), 2.04±0.3 (gynecology), and 2.17±0.24 (pediatrics) hours in the wards and 2.75±0.25 in the clinics. The medical students visited an average number of 5.54±1.55 inpatients and outpatients (internal medicine), 8.25±1.25 (surgery), 3±0.6 inpatients and 22.2±5.02 outpatients (gynecology), and 5.7±1.02 inpatients and 15.9±5.14 outpatients (pediatrics) per day.
Conclusion: The information obtained in relation to the average number of medical students, interns and residents, the number of visited patients per day, and the hours of medical students’ attendance and training by teachers in the wards can show a realistic picture of the conditions of training fields and help program planners.