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BACKGROUND: Since assessment of basic thinking skills is crucial in identifying an individual’s cognitive capacities and comprehending their strengths and weaknesses, developing a suitable evaluating instrument holds significant importance in scheduling the training of basic thinking skills. This study aims to develop and subsequently validate a self-assessment questionnaire of basic thinking skills for medical sciences students. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present study of designing and psychometrically testing the self-assessment questionnaire of basic thinking skills among medical sciences students was conducted between 2022 and 2023 at Isfahan University. For the validity review, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was employed. The adequacy of sample size was checked with the KMO index and Bartlett’s test of sphericity. To perform EFA, principal factor analysis with Varimax rotation was performed. To obtain evidence of reliability, the internal consistency of the questionnaire was examined using Cronbach’s alpha. The instrument stability was assessed through test-retest and intra-cluster correlation coefficient (ICC) analysis. RESULTS: The KMO (Keyser-Meyer-Elkin) sampling index was 780, and Bartlett’s sphericity test (BT) was also significant (P = .000). In analyzing the main components and checking the value, the first five components had an eigenvalue above one. The highest percentage of the total variance (67.64%) was explained by the first five factors, while the remaining variance (33.35%) was explained by the remaining 14 factors. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient for 19 items of the final questionnaire was 0.83. Intra-cluster correlation index (ICC) for overall self-assessment of thinking skills (ICC = 0.77), self-assessment of basic thinking skills (ICC = 0.80), self-assessment of lateral thinking (ICC = 0.78), and the necessity of teaching thinking skills (ICC = 0.74)) were all above 0.7 (P < 0.001). DISCUSSION: This study offers the first self-assessment questionnaire for basic thinking skills of medical sciences students which can be employed as a valid and reliable instrument for self-assessment of thinking skills and gaining insight into their training experiences. While the psychometrics of this questionnaire were based on the data from medical students, this questionnaire applies to students across various academic disciplines and is not limited to medical fields.

BACKGROUND: The deficiencies in the training of psychiatric residents in Isfahan, including the segregation of residency programs by year, the confinement of training to hospital departments, and the residents’ limited exposure to the perspectives of other faculty members, had not been given significant attention. However, the inevitable alterations in the Department of Psychiatry and the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic have brought these issues to the forefront, highlighting the need for program modifications. The objective of this study is to enhance the quality of psychiatric residency training by changing the implementation of the curriculum. METHODS AND MATERIALS: This proactive action research was conducted in six steps. In the first step, the expectations of a new action were identified. In the second step, the new action – creating learning teams – was designed and implemented; thus, eight learning teams comprising experienced professors, novice professors, and residents from various academic levels were created, who collectively engaged in patient visits, psychotherapy, counseling, and educational sessions. Additionally, the portfolio was used in the training and evaluation of the residents. Steps 3 to 6 involved evaluation using a researcher-made questionnaire, analysis and interpretation of results, and reflection and making decisions for future actions. RESULTS: Step 1 resulted in preparing a list of department expectations from new action. The second step yielded the design of a new action. The survey results showed that more than 60% of respondents agreed that the program had a positive impact on 12 out of 15 items in the questionnaire, particularly in enhancing teamwork skills, facilitating discussions about patients, and fostering residents’ accountability. However, in items related to portfolio, this percentage ranged from 40% to 53%. CONCLUSION: The implementation of learning teams as the main action in the current study has yielded positive outcomes; however, the portfolio intervention requires some adjustments. Hence, it is advisable to employ learning teams in comparable circumstances. The research team anticipates that these outcomes will enhance the quality of psychiatric residency training, positioning the country among the leading and influential nations in the region.

Background: High level of stress experienced by residents is one of the important factors of the reduction in their efficiency and the increase in their error rate and poor clinical performance.Objectives: The present study was conducted to review, identify and categorize the most important stressors of residents.Methods: In this narrative review study, English articles were reviewed by electronic search of Education Resources Information Center (ERIC), PubMed, ProQuest, Scopus and Google Scholar search engine over the last 10 years (2013-2022).Results: Based on the data, 89 stressors were extracted from 12 articles, and then divided into six categories of "stressors related to care and treatment, stressors related to interpersonal and intrapersonal communication, social stressors, stressors related to course management and planning, stressors related to teaching and learning and stressors related to residents' drive and desires".Conclusion: The identification and categorization of stressors in the present study made it possible that the planners and practitioners of residency courses can design and implement effective solutions to reduce the negative impacts of residents' stressors and, as a result, provide better conditions for their learning and training during the course.

Introduction: Postpartum depression is a common disorder among women. Therefore, proper and efficient training of healthcare providers for this disorder is of great importance. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of “lecture” and “simulated patient” teaching methods on teaching postpartum depression to healthcare providers. Methods: This quasi -experimental study employed a pretest-posttest design with intervention and control groups and it was carried out in Shahin Shahr healthcare system in 2016. 80 subjects who met inclusion criteria were selected by census method from among 86 healthcare providers and divided randomly into two groups of 40. Postpartum depression was taught to the intervention group and the control group using the “simulated patient” and “lecture” methods respectively. Both groups were given a valid and reliable test before and after the intervention to measure their knowledge and performance. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, independent t-tests and paired t-test. Results: In both groups, the posttest mean score was significantly higher than the pretest mean score (p

Background & Objective: One method to evaluate and monitor the effectiveness of the general medicine curriculum is the collection of results of research in this field In this study research results on the extent of predefined general competency in the formal document of the minimum competencies of Iranian general physicians have been systematically integrated Methods: The search strategy in this study included the searching of words doctor student interns or graduate and ability competency knowledge skill attitude or performance in the title abstract or keywords of articles All papers published from 2002 to 2014 in Persian language journals were retrieved from the Irandoc Iranmedex Magiran Medlib and SID databases Results: After the removal of irrelevant or duplicate papers from 270 recorded papers 24 articles were selected and analyzed All studies were descriptive studies and most used selfreporting methods to assess the competency of physicians Reviewed articles focused on only 48% of subdomains of the formal document of the minimum competencies of physicians In 70% of assessed skills physicians competencies were estimated as low to moderate Conclusion: Although these studies did not assess all skills mentioned in the formal document of the minimum competencies of physicians estimates show that the competencies of general physicians in assessed skills were not desirable It is recommended that future studies in this field to be managed

Introduction: Emotional Intelligence (EI) has become a matter of great interest in teaching due to its positive effects on teaching-learning process, achievement in life, and improvement potential. Several instruments have been developed to measure individuals’ EI but none of them have been able to show to what extent a teacher uses EI in his teaching. This study was performed to develop an emotional intelligence measurement tool in teaching and evaluate its psychometric features. Methods: The preliminary questionnaire of 109 questions was developed based on literature review and determining emotional teaching factors. Content and face validity were confirmed by experts. The construct validity was confirmed by determining the correlation between the instrument and the Bar-On questionnaire among 30 randomly selected faculties. For factor analysis and data reduction also, 350 questionnaires were distributed among faculties in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Exploratory factor analysis was performed through principal components analysis. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation, and factor analysis. Results: 350 faculties received the questionnaire and 204 filled it out (response rate =58%). The designed questionnaire was correlated with Bar-On (p

Introduction: Critical Thinking is one of the most important skills for people of 21th century, especially for medical students. Emotional intelligence is another outstanding factor for success in all aspects of life, profession and education. It seems that both critical thinking and emotional intelligence altogether can play an important role in training professional doctors. The aim of this study was to evaluate the critical thinking skills of medical students and their relationship with emotional intelligence score of them in the first semester of 2010-2011 school year. Methods: The target group was all the students of the term 6 of medicine (n=69) in the Isfahan Medical University.California Critical Thinking Skills Test-(CCTST) with 5 subscales and Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory- EQ-i with 5 scales and 15 subscales were used for data collection. Data were analyzed by SPSS11.5, using descriptive statistics, Pearson's correlation coeffitient, paired-samples T-test and independent-samples T-test. Results: Based on the findings, mean age of the target group was 22 years, and 72% of them were women. Mean score and standard deviation of Critical thinking test respectively were 11.96 out of 34 and 3.69. The mean score of deductive reasoning (6.12 out of 16) was significantly higher than inductive reasoning (4.92 out of 14). The total scores and standard deviation of Bar-On test were 330.7 (out of 450) and 34.29 respectively.There was no significant relationship between total score of Critical Thinking and Emotional Intelligence, except for the field of social responsibility of emotional intelligence that was directly related to Critical Thinking score (r=0.45, p=0.001). Conclusion: Although, mean score of critical thinking in medical students was not appropriate enough compared to the similar international studies, it was consistent with national ones. This can reflect the lack of critical thinking training in iranian educational curriculum. Lack of relationship between critical thinking and emotional intelligence scores might have been due to the difference in the type of questionnaires and students’ overestimation about their emotional abilities.

INTRODUCTION: Given the importance of feedback to improve teachers' educational performance, the current study aimed to identify the challenges and problems involved in providing feedback to clinical teachers on their educational performance. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the first phase of this mixed-methods study, the clinical teachers, students, and university officials were interviewed on feedback problems and challenges. After an inductive content analysis, and based on the problems enlisted, a ten-item questionnaire was developed. Subsequently, 25 clinical teachers completed the questionnaire by scoring the importance and urgency of each problem. RESULTS: Overall, 18 individual and group interviews were conducted with 24 people. A total of ten themes and five categories emerged, including “lack of transparency of feedback system,” “absence of criticizability culture,” “lack of motivation to improve performance,” “failure to consider factors affecting teacher's performance,” “lack of formative evaluation,” “inappropriate data obtained on teacher's performance,” “inappropriate feedback providers,” “inappropriate feedback recipients,” “inappropriate feedback provision,” and “no feedback follow-up.” Three items of priority involved “inappropriate feedback providers,” “inappropriate data,” and “failure to consider factors affecting the teacher's performance.” CONCLUSIONS: All the raised problems obtained high scores; nevertheless, the interviewees had more problems with the feedback provider, the data collected on the performance, and inattention of university officials to the factors influencing performance than feedback presentation methods. Hence, gaining the trust of teachers on the collected data, providing feedback by their trustworthy individuals, and paying attention to the factors influencing teachers' performance are associated with an increased possibility of feedback acceptance.

Background & Objective : Attention to the challenges that trainers and trainees may face during educational programs is very beneficial for achieving maximum efficiency in educational settings This study was conducted to identify the challenges experienced by interns and attends during ambulatory pediatrics teaching programs in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences Methods : This qualitative study was a small part of the evaluation of ambulatory pediatrics teaching program based on CIPP model Seven attends and seven interns were selected through purposeful sampling and interviewed using semistructured interviews in the summer and fall of 2009 Results : Interpretational analysis of interviews resulted in 6 categories named planning faculty members interns instructional activities learning resources and evaluation and 21 subcategories The suggestions given by participants for some challenges were considered too Conclusion : Attention to the aforementioned challenges and suggestions can be very beneficial in solving the present challenges

Introduction: The trend of medical education is going toward ambulatory medicine and clinics and the effect of physical environment on teaching-learning process is undeniable. This study was performed to determine the frequency distribution of physical environment indices in educational clinics of hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences. Methods: In a descriptive study, all educational clinics affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (33 clinics) were investigated through census sampling method. The data gathering tool was a researcher-made checklist including features of a clinic and its qualitative and quantitative characteristics. Clinics were directly observed by the researcher. The data was analyzed by SPSS software and reported through descriptive indices. Results: The highest frequencies in the clinics under investigation belonged to the domains of light (100%), facilities (78.8%), and arrangement of seats (84.8%). The lowest frequency percentages belonged to the existence of anti-acoustic walls (0%), access to educational resources such as internet and computers (3%), and access to reference books (6.1%). Conclusion: The physical environment of the investigated clinics was evaluated as weak regarding access to educational resources, as average regarding the existence of internal room, conditioning and access to facilities, and as very good in regard to the amount of light. Due to the lack of study in the field of physical environment, especially in clinical education, it is recommended to conduct further studies.

Background: Standardized patient (SP) can serve as a valuable tool to measure the physician performance in actual clinical settings, but it has not been validated for obesity/overweight disorders. This study has been conducted to describe the process of creating reliable and valid SPs for evaluation of general-practitioners′ management of obesity/overweight in Iran. Materials and Methods: A total of 6 obese/overweight volunteers (potential SPs) took part in training. Three scenarios, along with corresponding checklists including 102 items representing different aspects of diagnosis and treatment of obesity/overweight, were developed by an expert group. The SPs were trained using role playing method. During this part, one of the SPs failed. The SPs′ portrayal of their respective scenario was online watched in another room and the checklist filled independently by the physician, research assistant and other SPs. The reliability of the checklist to be used by the SPs was assessed by Cronbach′s alpha. The overall inter-rater agreement was calculated by the intraclass correlation coefficient statistic for total scores. Results: The 5 eligible SPs were all women between 20 years and 39 years of age. Inter-rater agreement between the SPs′ total scores was 0.899, value (95% confidence intervals) were 11.8 (0.68-0.98) and P value was