Improving Quality of 'Health Service Management' Clerkship Course Using Action Research

Introduction: Action research is one of the important methods in medical education quality improvement. This study aims to improve quality of 'health service management' student’s clerkship course using action research. Methods: This action research study used mix method approach and was conducted in Tabriz University of Medical Science in 2018 year using Simon’s six stage model. Qualitative data was collected through in deapth interviews and focus group discussions (FGDs). Quantitative data was collected through a reliable and validated questionnaire. The participants were 17 health service management students (enrolled in 2015-2016) and the control group were 28 health service management students enrolled in 2014-2015). Qualitative data were analysed using content-analysis and quantitative data were analysed using T-test by SPSS-16 software. Result: Overall, 14 problems were identified and for 11 problems interventions were designed. The most important strengths of clerkship were;a)regular planning, b) appropriate assessment, c)scoring, high level of tutor attendance and d)more attention to management issues. Coordination problems and inappropriate headline of portfolio in some cases were weakness of this action research. The results of quantitative evaluation show that all items of questionnaire were improved. After reseach, %20.6 increase was observed in students' satisfactions level in the intervention groupcompared with the control group (80.7 vs. 60.1) (p>0.05). Conclusion: This action research significantly improved quality of clerkship course, it’s recommended that in future years same studies with aim to more quality improvement implemented. Keywords: Action research, Medical education, Clerkship, Quality improvement.