Iranian Journal of Medical Education

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Introduction. Need Assessment is an inseparable element of educational planning and optimization of human resources. Identifying educational needs can increase the efficacy of educational plans. The goal of this research was to investigate the characteristics of an appropriate need assessment model and also determine the most applicable need assessment models according to the viewpoints of health directors and experts in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Health services. Methods. In this descriptive-qualitative research 32 health directors and their assistants and 31 staff experts of Health Networks in Isfahan were studied. The data were collected through a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed by content validity and its reliability by test-re-test. Then the data were analyzed by SPSS software using frequency distribution and Ch2 test. Results. The proper patterns for need assessment of the understudy population have the following characteristics: They define need as the distance between existing and desired situation, consider society, goals and its values as need assessment sources, use direct observation and questionnaire as need assessment tools, recognize need in municipality, consider the participation rate of the population as the criterion for determination of the model, apply need assessment timing in several steps, gather people representatives at special places as the most suitable location, use Delphi method as the most suitable executive method, apply purpose axis patterns and compositional patterns as the most applicable models. Conclusion. Educational need assessment is the first and most essential step in educational planning for medical education, and health and therapeutic system. Determining the needs based on precise patterns and techniques can increase the effectiveness and quality of planning in this system. It is recommended to train health directors and experts regarding suitable need assessment models.

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Introduction: Although it is obvious that nutrition has a clear impact on incidence, prevention, and treatment of many diseases, it has not been addressed properly in medical education. Therefore, physicians’ educational needs assessment is the first step of improving physicians’ skills in nutrition and diet therapy. Methods: It is a cross-sectional study. In this study, a focus group was hold. Then essential topics for training physicians was developed using the job analysis approach (Including determining the tasks sub tasks skills and items that can be corrected through training). Result: Five main tasks that must be learned were achieved. They were nutritional status assessment, patient’s data analysis, determining the diet suitable for patient’s condition, planning the diet therapy, its implementation, and evaluation. 19 sub tasks were defined for these main duties. Conclusion: There was a well consistency between our findings and earlier studies around the world. These results can be used to raise the nutritional knowledge of general practitioners whether through academic courses included in their curricula, or continuing education programs.

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Introduction: Continuing education of human resources is an integral part of medical universities’ tasks to offer desirable services and meet the society’s needs which is achieved through various ways including workshops. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the extent of compliance with principles of designing and implementing educational workshops by the vice chancellor for health of Arak University of Medical Sciences.

Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study was performed in 2014. The population and sample consisted of in-service all of educational workshops for the staff of the vice chancellor for health of Arak University of Medical Sciences which were calculated at 28 workshops Data collection tool was a researcher-made checklist whose validity and reliability had been confirmed. Also, a survey questionnaire was randomly distributed among 20 learners in each workshop leading to a total number of 560 learners. Data were analyzed by central tendency and dispersion indices.

Results: The mean score of design was at a desirable level (78.18±9.07 out of 100), while that of implementation was average (60.47±7.72). The highest score of design was related to content-goal compatibility (4.71±0.76 out of 5), while the lowest scores were related to the appropriate number of participants (2.67±0.72), learners’ knowledge of prerequisites (2.95±1.57) and proportion of the time of theoretical subjects and group work (3±0.94). As to implementation, the highest scores were related to the behavior and impact of teachers in learning (4.23±0.72) and clarity of goals (4.18±0.74), while the lowest scores were related to the content’s scientific accuracy (1.95±0.99), the lack of complete relevance of contents to learners’ needs (2.02±1.24) and improper implementation of group work (3.23±1.48).

Conclusion: The results indicate the desirability of workshops’ design but most of the learners had an average evaluation of the implementation. Therefore, it is suggested that besides holding training courses for directors about the implementation of workshops, special attention should be given to overcoming the weaknesses of workshops’ design.