Ambulatory medical education in educational centers of Tabriz school of medicine, Intern’s point of view.

Introduction. According to shift of medical education from inpatient to outpatient centers in recent years ,the aim of this study is to determine the attitude of Interns about outpatient education in all clinical departments in medical school. Methods. 429 Interns were entered this study . A questionnaire composed of questions on the quality of outpatient education, time of the learning in the clinics, pattern of learning and the role of faculty members in education was completed by the participants. Data was analyzed by the EPI info program. Results. Among 429 Interns, 42.7% spent just 1-5 days in clinics instead of 1 month. The main role of interns was history taking, physical examination and treatment planning with supervision. 62.4% believed that faculty members were in the clinic in order to teach most of the time (p<0.01). 64.6% mentioned that residents took part in Intern’s teaching . Number of outpatient education and the presence of residents were significantly related to the outpatient education process(p<0.01). In 12 clinical departments 100% of interns mentioned that they could “somehow” manage the patients and they believed that the quality of education in pediatrics, ENT, psychiatry, endocrinology, gastroenterology, obstetrics and gynecology departments was good(p<0.01). Conclusion. Increasing the time of ambulatory medicine education and presence of faculty members and residents and also teaching the practical aspects of patient management are important issues in outpatient management.