Attitudes of academic staffs of Zahedan University of Medical Sciences toward ambulatory care education

Introduction. There is an obvious gap between traditional medical education and occupational expectations of medical graduates. So in order to eliminate this problem and promote students competence in clinical process, a new educational strategy, entitled “ambulatory care education (ACE)” have been suggested which is based on integration of individual clinical expertise and the medical education. The aim of this study was to identify the attitudes of academic staffs of Zahedan University of medical sciences toward (ACE). Methods. In this descriptive study, questionnaires were used and handed in between 75 faculty members of Zahedan University of medical sciences .of whom 66 responded . Results. 51.5% of the responders told that hospital bed wards were not enough for medical teaching, and 51.5% of them believed that there was inappropriateness between diseases that medical students encounter in hospital bed wards and the ones, they will face with in the society. 78.7% of responders believed that ambulatory care education must be about 50% Of the total medical education . Conclusion. Based upon this study we propose: 1. Equipping (ACE) . 2. Solving faculty members’ problems. 3. Integration of medical education with clinical practice.4. Curricular change towards community – oriented medical education.5. Curricular change towards educational needs.