VIEWPOINT OF INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL SCIENCE STUDENTS AT TEHRAN UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES ON CLINICAL ASSESSMENT METHODS, TEHRAN, IRAN
Addis Adera Gebru*, Alireza Nikbakht Nasrabadi, Abraha Woldemichael Nigussie, Ayalew Asfaw
ABSTRACT
Background: Clinical evaluation methods (CEM) are an important means to identify clinical performance as well as educational process of medical science students and to address learning views. Objective: This study aims to identify viewpoints regarding clinical evaluation preference among postgraduate international medical science students in Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Iran. Methods: A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted. A total of 38 participants completed the self-administered structured questionnaire in December 2013. The Statistical Packages for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21 was used for the ANOVA analyze and results were presented in numbers, percentages, means and standard deviations. The cut-off 5% level of significance was taken to see the difference between groups. Results: Thirty-eight students participated in the study. Of which 32 (84.2%) were males and the remaining six (15.15.8%) were females. Master of Sciences (M.Sc.) students and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) students accounted for 26(68.4%) and 12(31.6%) respectively. The overall mean score on direct observation of procedural skills (2.39±0.547) was higher than the mean score on Mini-CEX (2.37±0.489) and patient management problem (PMP) (2.29±0.515). However, these differences were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Generally, there was no statistically significant difference in all types of learning preference based on gender. However, the mean score of females viewpoint on “oral test” (2.33±0.516) was significantly (F = 4.326; p = 0.045) higher than the mean of their male counter parts (1.88± 0.492). Similarly, the mean score of females view on PMP (2.67 ±0.516) was significantly (F = 4.146; p = 0.049) higher than the mean response of their male counter parts (2.22 ± 0.491). Conclusion: A multi-method clinical evaluation including direct observation of the students interacting with several patients at different points can be applicable. This study revealed no statistically significant difference in learning preference among the participants based on gender. Statistically significant differences were observed between female and male students on “oral test” and PMP scores. These findings imply gap in viewpoints among different medical sciences students requiring balancing the different clinical evaluation methods in the context.
Keywords: Clinical evaluation method, learning preference, medical sciences, viewpoint.
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