A New Approach to Introducing Minimum Learning Requirements in Internal and Surgical Emergencies during General Medical Education

Introduction: In order to adjust medical students’ education with their professional needs, the educational managers in Isfahan Medical University decided to design a specific course for teaching Emergency Medicine. This study was done to determine the viewpoints of experts concerning minimum educational needs in emergency departments during general medical education. Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed in Medical University of Isfahan in 2003. The data was collected through three phases. In the first phase, the viewpoints of 30 interns, residents and general practitioners about minimum educational needs in emergency departments were gathered using open ended questions. Then a questionnaire was developed based on the results to be used in the second phase in which the viewpoints of 30 residents, faculty members and general practitioners were asked in order to delete unrelated topics. In the third phase, experts were invited and requested to discuss about each topic and choose the final topics according to the statistical results. The data was analyzed by SPSS software using mean and frequency. Results: During the first phase, 431 topics in 13 groups were defined. In the second phase, 132 topics were omitted, 146 were accepted, and 153 were remained to be taught in professional subgroups. Then, based on two introduced criteria the score of each topic was determined and the topics were ranked according to these scores. Abdominal emergencies and traumas had the most topics among all topics. Conclusion: The results of this study can be used as a base for designing a proper educational program. These minimum learning requirements for internal and surgical emergency wards can help in educational and managerial decision making.