نامه به سردبیر: ضرورت بازنگری لاگ بوک در بخش های بالینی دانشگاه علوم پزشکی بیرجند

Clinical education can be taken as a facilitating activity for learning in the clinical settings in which students gain experiences from patients’ bedside and apply their previously learned concepts through their interactions with their teachers and routine works. Clinical education provides an opportunity for students to transform their theoretical knowledge into diverse intellectual and psychomotor skills essential to patient care. The evaluation process of teaching and learning is one of the noticeable activities in educational institutions because the training of skilled and competent manpower, to a large extent, is dependent on this process. The use of modern educational techniques, increasing productivity, and ultimately enhancing the effectiveness of educational centers is the goal followed all over the world but, this is more emphasized in the field of medical sciences that are directly connected with maintaining and improving the health of people and society. This is why for more effectiveness of medical education applying new methods is necessitated. One of the evaluated and structured methods focusing on learning experiences in education is “logbook”. Logbook is a simple means for learners, a framework for organizing various educational activities and recording them. One of the unique characteristics of a logbook is that it requires students acquire a certain number of skills. This causes the students to do their tasks as planned and objectively too; and thanks to repetition and practice they would prevent probable errors. At present, a lot of clinical education aspects are different than in the past. Technology development, changes in the pattern of people’s lifestyle and higher exposure to environmental risk factors (Such as the development of chemical industry, natural or synthetic chemicals, biological agents including viruses and other microorganisms, behavioral factors including psychological stress and drug addiction) cause changes in the pattern of diseases in general and particularly in the domain of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Therefore, in accord with these changes, the graduates and scholars are expected to promote their skills and abilities. Since, identification and analysis of the effectiveness of educational needs are prerequisite for a successful educational system, revision and continuous reviewing of educational programs based on the possibilities, conditions, and new needs are inevitable. Thus, the results of a study on 233 medical students passing their clinical stage (externs or interns) in Birjand University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2016-2017 showed that 24.5% of them knew high or very high helpful completion of their log books activities in attaining of clinical wards skills and 74.5% expressed the necessity of reviewing available log books in clinical wards. According to the obtained results the necessity of reviewing log books used in clinical wards of BUMS considering the latest clinical issues, diseases- including emerging and reemerging ones- and diagnostic -therapeutic methods in accordance with changes in diagnostic - therapeutic guidelines using the newest resources is critically felt. Furthermore, due to the pervasive use of electronic log books in recent years in medical universities across the country that are in line with developments and innovations in medical education, it is recommended that the log books at this university too, should be presented and evaluated electronically. Electronic log books with ongoing record of activities and clinical techniques based on educational objectives, in addition to learning consolidation, determine unavailable measures to achieve clinical objectives and, thus, cause regular monitoring and evaluation on the part of students.