Iranian Journal of Medical Education

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Introduction: The prevalence of musculoskeletal and orthopedic diseases is high in outpatient visits and emergency ward. Meanwhile, evidences show that there is no appropriate and sufficient education in this regard, in the educational programs of medical students and especially orthopedic interns. The aim of this study was to determine the accomplishment of minimum learning essentials by interns in orthopedic ward of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in educational hospitals of Isfahan Medical School in April and June 2006. A 14 item questionnaire including determined minimum learning essentials in 4 fields of surgery room, emergency, ward, and clinic was developed. Forty orthopedic interns, who at least had passed 3 months of their internship course, completed the questionnaire as self-administered. The data was analyzed by SPSS software using frequency distribution. Results: All participants in this study performed the assessment of the "signs of the compartment syndrome" and "sutures" by themselves. Not all of the interns had received the needed education for casting and splint, doing different kinds of bandages, suturing open wounds and doing intra-articular injections. Conclusion: Interns could not achieve minimum learning essentials in orthopedic ward which was in accordance with previous studies. Therefore, it is necessary to implement a complete revision in educational programs of orthopedic interns such as extending the course duration, determining the task descriptions, and providing externship course.

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Introduction: As there are different e-CME content formats, we need documented evidence for comparing them. In this study, we determined the proper e-content format for CME activities in Iran. Methods: We devised a questionnaire to gather the opinion of the faculty members who had the experience of e-CME content development about the proper e-CME content format for Iranian medical society. Based on their opinion, we developed 20 e-CME contents and delivered them to the medical society. Learners’ evaluation of the contents provided us with the evidence for assessing the experts’ opinion. Results: There was a significant difference among scores that faculty members had given to different types of contents (P<0.001). They believed that case-based interactive e-contents would improve learners’ performance and increase their interest more than other formats. But they declared that this kind of e-content development is more difficult and time-consuming than developing other types. Learners rated the programs as 4.56 (SD= 0.65) on the 1–5 Likert-type scale, which shows that they are satisfied with this e-content format. Conclusion: Considering the necessity to compare different e-learning strategies and also defining national models to apply them, this study’s results would help designers and providers of e-CME programs in decision making. But more studies should be performed to determine these programs’ learning outcomes.

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Introduction: Educational system is a set of plans, approaches, and materials which coordinately facilitate learners’ access to pedagogical objectives. With regard to the fact that each step of knowledge acquisition calls for a particular learning method or a specific approach, it might be possible to ease students’ achievement of learning objectives by using a blend of learning strategies. This study aimed to determine the effects of blended teaching models on learning of vital signs among nursing and operation room students. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental, with before and after-research design performed on two groups. All first semester nursing and operation room students (N=52) were selected for the study. They were randomly allocated into two groups of experiment and control and were instructed using blended and traditional education methods. Before and after each session of education, academic achievement tests were applied to evaluate students’ cognitive learning in three levels of knowledge, comprehension, and application regarding the topic of vital signs. Data was analyzed using t-test, Wilcoxon, Mann Whitney, and Fisher’s exact test. Results: Both teaching methods improved students’ learning in knowledge, comprehension, and application levels. Mean differences before and after education in both groups were statistically significant in all levels. The mean of increase in scores in all exams and sessions were significantly higher in the blended teaching group compared to the traditional one. The mean score of students’ satisfaction in experiment group(66.2±19.5) was significantly (p<.001) different from the control(38.9±21.4). Conclusion: The used blend of teaching methods was more effective than the traditional one, on the improvement of knowledge, comprehension and application of vital signs topic. It also satisfied students more. Of course, the traditional method was also effective, so both approaches may be used according to the situation.