Iranian Journal of Medical Education

Introduction: The necessity of a dynamic education in the field of medicine with the aim of improving the quality of education in order to train more efficient doctors has always led to the provision of new educational methods. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the implementation of the selected educational program of pediatric outpatient drugs on the level of knowledge of interns.

Methods: This study is a two-group semi-experimental interventional study of pre-test-post-test type with a control group, which included 70 people (through random assignment, 35 people were considered as the control group and 35 people were considered as the intervention group) from the medical internship students of the year 2016-2018 academic year of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences who were introduced to Imam Reza, Qaim and Dr. Sheikh hospitals of Mashhad were selected by available sampling method. The data collection tool was a structured test titled measuring the level of students' knowledge and awareness of pediatric outpatient drugs, based on the variables studied. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistical methods (mean and frequency of standard deviation) and analysis of covariance test.

Results: The mean and standard deviation of the interns' knowledge in the pre-test was 5.93±0.57 in the control group and 5.93±0.57 in the intervention group, and in the post-test the mean and standard deviation of the interns' knowledge in the control group (13.89±1.28) and intervention group (16.82±1.34). The average scores of the two control and intervention groups in the post-test were significant (p=0.001), which indicates the effect of the complementary educational program of pediatric outpatient medicine in the intervention group. The test statistic was (F=85.407).

Conclusion: The present study confirmed the effect of the selected educational program of pediatric outpatient drugs on the promotion of regular education and as an effective supplementary education. Therefore, it seems that the implementation of this educational program in medical sciences universities across the country should be considered in the coming years.