Quality of Clinical Education in Birjand Medical School from the Students Perspective

Background: A main factor to change the education from static to dynamic situations is continuous evaluation of academic systems. This study is performed to analyze the students’ viewpoints in terms of the quality of clinical education in Birjand University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This is a descriptive and analytical study. The statistical population consists of 135 individuals including 64 interns and 71 stagers chosen from the students who had spent all their clinical courses. A census method was performed. Clinical training in three areas of scientific quality, training management, communication and consultation were studied. Results: Mean age of the students was 25.2±1.3 years, their average score was 16.8±0.86.  61.5% of them were female, 62.2% single and  exotic. Regarding the students’ evaluations, the highest and lowest average scores are, for academic proficiency in Neurology (25.3±4.1) and ENT (123±5.7) respectively, for the Educational Management in Infectious Diseases (29.1±5.1) and Orthopedic (20.9±6.9) and for Communication and Consultation, in Pediatrics (20.5±4.4) and psychology (14.6±5.9), which shows the education quality is relatively good (53.5%). Conclusions: This study showed that the students’ evaluation on the quality of clinical education in different sections is relatively good. Necessary interventions are required in low-quality sections. Specifically, for the scientific mastery, this must be done in ENT, orthopedic, and psychology, for the educational management, in orthopedics, ENT, psychology and for the area of communication and consultation in psychology, ENT, and surgery. This intervention must be done by the university officials.