Need assessment of medical education’s general objectives in basic sciences & physiopathology periods according to intern’s views

Introduction. The assessment of learning needs is one of the basic stages in education which leads to a change in medical education curriculum. Such assessment can be conducted based on different reasons. Therefore it should be defined, and the methods of application of the findings must be analyzed. One of the known methods of need assessment is the analysis of the differences between the present and desired situation. Considering the fact that identifying one’s own learning needs is an essential part of self directed learning. This study is an attempt to survey the general objectives of medical education in basic sciences, physiopathology by the use of current and desired situation in the view of interns. Methods. This was a descriptive study and the subjects under the study were interns in Shiraz Medical School in September 2001. A questionnaire about general objectives of medical education based on revision of medical education was designed to measure the participants’ opinion regarding objectives of medical education. Validity of the contents was determined by using expert’s opinions and reliability by test-retest. About 120 questionnaires were distributed to interns. All data were analyzed with SPSS package, using the chi-square test. Results. The findings of this study revealed that according to the interns’ opinion there was a significant difference between the current situation and the desired or necessary situation of medical education Conclusion. The results of this study reveal that there is a great gap between the present general objectives of medical education and the ideal condition. This can be considered as a warning to medical education officials, that what are the costs if no solution is applied and what are the costs of conducting programs to change the situation? Further studies are recommended on the causes of this gap.