selecting an appropriate site for medical education

the present study aims at locating the appropriate site for the training of medical students. it is argued that in community oriented medical education the training of medical students should take place where more patients come for consultation. this will result in students having a greater exposure to patients with a variety of medical problems. in order to find out the places where more patients went for medical advice, a questionnaire was designed and filled out by one percent of the population of esfahcan, one of the main provinces of the islamic republic of iran. a total of 33, 714 questionnaires were filled out. the questions asked were whether the respondent had any medical complaints in the previous month, whether s/he had been hospitalised during the previous month, and if that was the case, how s/he had managed the problem. 11,230 respondents reported of at least one medical problem, but only 9,818 had sought medical advice. 9,672 respondents out of 9,818 underwent treatment in outpatient clinics and the rest were hospitalised. among the 146 hospitalised cases, only 74 cases were in teaching hospitals, that is only 0.7% of the total number of respondents who reported that they had medical problems. 945 respondents reported at least four days rest at home, that is 6 times more than hospitalised cases. the results of the study indicate that hospitals may not be the only right place for the training of medical students. places such as outpatient departments and ambulatory care centers attend to more patients and therefore give students greater exposure to a variety of medical problems.