Prematurity escalates the crisis of the infants a susceptible group of the society. Multiple delivery further intensifies the susceptibility of both family and health system. A comprehensive care is, ...thus, necessary to ensure the optimal growth and development of such multiple-births. Accompanied by trainings, challenges, and strategies, the present study was conducted based on a two-year report of comprehensive care management experience on two sets of multiple infants.
A qualitative case study approach was used to survey these two sets of premature infants (quadruplet and quintuplet) and their families. The data were collected through medical files, interviews, questionnaire, field presence, phone call and WhatsApp application, and continued follow-ups. Content analysis was performed based on survey and interventions during a period of two years in Isfahan, Iran (2018-2020).
Case presentation and comprehensive care management are the main areas resulted from this study. The results of the study were categorized in eight challenging areas (categories) and strategies including sterility and infertility period, transition from the intrauterine to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), discharge process, physical and developmental status, home visit and home care, development of care plan, socio-economic support, and coronavirus nightmare.
Based on challenges and strategies during these two years, the situation of the multiple-birth infants and their families' needs should be identified as the first prerequisites in an inter-professional approach and in collaboration with the health providers. Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Welfare Organization, and the charities were the parties involved with this process in our study. It was also found that developing a separate specific package of comprehensive care management plan for multiple-births is a necessity.
Abstract
Background
Despite the changing roles of faculty in the health professions over the past two decades, none of the reviews has been paid enough attention to the impact of the faculty ...development programs on these roles. The objective of this review is to synthesize the existing evidence that addresses the questions: “What are the types and outcomes of faculty development programs based on the Harden teachers’ role framework and which of the areas described by Harden and Crosby are the authors referring to?”
Methods
This review was conducted according to the guidance for Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework. In 2020, a literature search was conducted in MEDLINE/PubMed, Scopus, ERIC, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, Magiran and SID databases. The review included 119 studies (between 1990 and 2020) that met the review criteria. Data were extracted using a modified coding sheet. We used the modified Kirkpatrick model to assess the educational outcomes of faculty development programs.
Results
The majority of faculty development programs were workshops (33.61%) with various durations. Most programs focused on the domain of information provider and coach (76.47%), followed by the facilitator of learning and mentor (53.78%) and assessor and diagnostician (37.81%). Only five faculty development programs focused on the domain of role model. The majority (83.19%) of outcomes reported were at level 2B, level 1 (73.95%) and level 2A (71.42%). Gains in knowledge and skills related to teaching methods and student assessment were frequently noted. Behavior changes included enhanced teaching performance, development of new educational curricula and programs, improved feedback and evaluation processes, new leadership positions, increased academic output and career development. The impact on the organizational practice continued to be underexplored.
Conclusion
Based on the review findings, broadening the scope of faculty development programs beyond the traditional roles of the faculty members by utilizing a competency-based framework for developing a comprehensive faculty development program is recommended. Attention to individualized form of faculty development programs and incorporating more informal approaches into the design and delivery of faculty development programs is also needed.
We have recently published the experience of the accreditation body of undergraduate medical education in Iran on developing and validating standards based on the WFME framework (Gandomkar et al., ...BMC Med Educ 23:379, 2023). Agabagheri et al. extended our work and proposed a blueprint for post-accreditation monitoring based on their experience in developing an official guide in their Matters Arising (Aghabagheri et al., BMC Med Educ). The authors have used post-accreditation monitoring as a process of monitoring and controlling accreditation activities, procedures often referred to as meta-evaluation or meta-accreditation (depending on the objectives of evaluation) in the literature. On the contrary, post-accreditation monitoring alludes to the process of continuous quality improvement of educational programs after accreditation. We would like to make clarifications between post-accreditation monitoring, meta-evaluation and meta-accreditation which have been used interchangeably in their paper. Considering the emerging interests in scholarship and non-scholarship activities and reports in undergraduate medical education accreditation, this clarification provides a better understanding of the roles of these crucial concepts in the accreditation process.
Background: Community medicine and public health are the core subjects in medical education. One of the main competencies of general physicians in the national curriculum is having knowledge and ...skills in health promotion and disease prevention in the health system. Any curriculum revision in community medicine departments needs to incorporate the evidence and use pioneer countries’ experiences in this issue. This study aims to compare community medicine and public health courses in medical schools between Iran and selected universities in North America. Methods: The elements of a community medicine curriculum for medical students were compared in a descriptive-comparative study using the Bereday model. These elements included objectives and competencies, educational strategies, teaching and learning methods, assessment, and educational fields in a community medicine curriculum in Iran and in selected universities in North America. A literature search was conducted in CINAHL, SCOPUS, MEDLINE, Web of Science, EBSCO, and on university websites. Results: Essential aspects of community-based strategies among community medicine and public health curriculum of general medicine in universities in Canada and the United States included a longitudinal approach, training in urban and rural primary care centers, teaching by family physicians and health center staff, a spiral curriculum, focus on social determinants of health, taking of social and cultural histories and social prescriptions, learning teamwork, and using LIC (Longitudinal Integrated Curriculum). Conclusion: The objective of community medicine and public health curriculum in selected North American universities was to prepare general practitioners who work in Level 2 and 3 hospitals and to improve their skills to provide high-quality services to the community. Some of the successful points in the selected universities that could be replicated in Iranian faculties of medicine included using integration strategy, a spiral curriculum, and an LIC approach.
Infertility, a problematic issue to the newly married couples, should be treated as no couple should be deprived of having children. The treatment, however, poses new challenges to the multiples and ...subsequent preterm births, health system, and families. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the effect of an education-support-follow-up program on the mothers' perceptions of their multiples' needs.
This research is a three-phase interventional study. The first phase develops an educational program through review of the literature and using the opinions of experts. In the second phase, the developed program will be implemented in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for the mothers of multiples. In the third phase, based on the developed plan, the required support will be applied and followed up. The data collection tool is a researcher-made questionnaire which is completed by the mothers (
= 30) before and after the intervention. Convenience sampling method will be used, and the mothers will be allocated randomly. Data gathering started from September 2020 and would continue until the sample collection is completed. Data will be analyzed through the descriptive and analytical statistics with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.
The present study can address the needs of the multiple infants based on the implementation of an education-support-follow-up program for mothers and their families.
The mothers of multiple infants are required to specify unique physical and developmental needs of their infants, while their perceptions of these needs may be different based on the education-support-follow-up program. The researchers designed the program to help them define highly specialized needs of multiples and also examined their perceptions of these needs.
Extensive research in the past decades has evidenced differences in the psychomotor ability of individuals resulting from varying levels of experience, age, gender, response precision, compatibility, ...performance, and ability. Many studies have called for the need to identify psychomotor ability and appropriate tests that can assess it. This review article surveys the definition, categorization, and tests of psychomotor ability as well as training based on psychomotor ability in medical sciences. We searched the literature with no time limit, using the ProQuest, PubMed, and Eric databases, as well as the Google Scholar search engine. The keywords for the search involved psychomotor, psychomotor performance, assessment, psychomotor ability, motor learning, education, training, psychomotor ability testing, and psychomotor skills. Other relevant papers found through hand searching and snowballing were also included in the review. The EndNote X8 was employed as a reference manager tool. Only abstracts of the papers whose full texts were accessible were reviewed after repetitious papers were excluded. The documents were categorized into five groups: definition of psychomotor skills and ability, psychomotor ability components, psychomotor ability tests, identification of psychomotor ability (task analysis), and training. This review article revealed that there is not a single definition for psychomotor ability and its components. However, it can be said that motor abilities are the foundation for the rapid acquisition of skills and according to the neuroplasticity process are learned through training and practice. Given psychomotor abilities vary among individuals, training courses should also provide different levels of psychomotor training for learners. The literature introduces psychomotor tests as a selection tool, a predictor of future professional behavior, and a means to evaluate progress in performance, academic guidance (ability-oriented medical specialty), and curriculum implementation tailored to the needs of learners of varying graduate disciplines. The tests should be profession-specific because each profession entails its peculiar characteristics and abilities. On the other hand, the major problem in studying and analyzing underlying psychomotor skills and abilities is that the components are being investigated by researchers from varying, and usually unrelated, scientific fields. Therefore, it is necessary to have a holistic view through close interaction between the researchers of different sciences to better understand this area.
An essential characteristics of clinical education is the need to learn a large number of practical and communication skills along with theoretical knowledge. It is challenging to design learning ...opportunities (LOs) for clinical setting. We aimed to determine optimal learning opportunities from the viewpoint of Medical curriculum planners, to determine the gap between the current condition and the optimal condition in medical schools, and to present feasible tactic for clinical learning opportunities.
This study comprised of three sub-studies and was conducted using triangulation. The first sub-study was performed using the Modified Delphi method with a view to identifying optimal learning opportunities. Data was collected by online focus group discussion and a questionnaire. The second sub-study was conducted with the aim of comparing the current condition and the optimal condition. Data was collected from nine medical schools across Iran using a checklist, available documents, observation, and interview. The third sub-study was conducted using an expert panel comprising of seven curriculum planners of the M.D.
The goal of this phase was to provide feasible tactic to improve clinical education in medical schools.
In the first sub-study, the participants determined all items, including student-centered learning, non-threatening learning environment, and record and management system of clinical learning opportunities as implementable learning opportunities with over 70% consensus. However, in the second sub-study, student-centered teaching methods were practiced in 33% of medical schools and the non-threatening learning environment in 67% of the schools, while the record and management system of learning opportunities was not launched in any of the schools. From the viewpoint of the expert panel members, learning opportunities adapted to clinical contents, specification of content-based learning opportunities, and continuous supervision on learners to achieve the expected learning outcomes were among clinical learning opportunities with over 70% consensus.
Student-centered clinical learning practices, together with virtual learning methods, can lead to clinical enhancement. Opportunities such as interactive and participatory practices should gain further consideration. Also assigning responsibility to learners and monitoring them are strategies for enhancement.
Monitoring and management of undergraduate medical education (UME) curricula are crucial contributors to successful medical education. This systematized review explores the different approaches that ...medical schools have to UME curriculum management or monitoring in order to provide a basis for curriculum managers.
PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, and ERIC were searched with no time limitation using the keywords curriculum, medicine, management, monitoring, and alignment. Advanced search options and Boolean operators 'AND' and 'OR' were also used to find more relevant records.
From a total of 673 records, 14 articles along with 7 papers from hand searching and snowballing were included in the review. Documents were categorized into 3 groups of UME curriculum management: developing computerized tools, surveying curriculum stakeholders and reviewing curriculum documents, and introducing managerial structures.
Different approaches are reported for UME curriculum management/monitoring at different levels. Managerial structures and computerized tools are most frequently used at the college level because of the large number of faculty members who are responsible for the UME curriculum delivery and the large amount of complex curriculum information. Surveys and reviews of curriculum documents are used mostly to manage a part of a UME curriculum or to monitor teaching of a certain subject during all or some of the educational years.
Defining standards is the first step toward quality assurance and improvement of educational programs. This study aimed at developing and validating a set of national standards for the Undergraduate ...Medical Education (UME) program through an accreditation system in Iran using the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) framework.
The first draft of standards was prepared through consultative workshops with the participation of different UME program stakeholders. Subsequently, standards were sent to medical schools and UME directors were asked to complete a web-based survey. The content validity index at the item level (I-CVI) was computed using criteria including clarity, relevance, optimization and evaluability for each standard. Afterward, a full-day consultative workshop was held and a wide range of UME stakeholders across the country (n = 150) discussed the survey results and made corrections to standards.
Analysis of survey results showed that relevance criteria had the best CVI as only 15 (13%) standards demonstrated CVI < 0.78. More than two-thirds (71%) and a half (55%) of standards showed CVI < 0.78 for optimization and evaluability criteria. The final set of UME national standards was structured in 9 areas, 24 sub-areas, 82 basic and 40 quality development standards, and 84 annotations.
We developed and validated national standards as a framework to ensure the quality of UME training with input from UME stakeholders. We used WFME standards as a benchmark while addressing local requirements. The standards and participatory approach to developing standards may guide relevant institutions.
Health authorities usually exploit after-action reports to collect data on their experience in responding to public health emergencies. To develop an effective approach to manage and learning from ...health emergencies, we have launched Isfahan COvid-19 REgistry for data collection during routine clinical careas a first “critical incident registry” in Iran. Registries can be employed to explain the natural history of the disease, learn about a particular disease in terms of patient outcomes, the cost-effectiveness of clinical management, monitoring the quality of health-care service, and developing research hypotheses.
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