The Effect of Theoretical Courses in Apprenticeship on Educational Function of Medical Students in Pediatrics and Gynecology Wards of Educational Hospitals of Birjand University of Medical Sciences

Background: Clinical training is an important part of the training courses of medicine during which students learn how to face the patients, diagnose the diseases and treat the patients. Alongside clinical apprenticeship, related theoretical courses are presented so that the most training possible is covered. In the past the theoretical courses of pediatrics ward of Birjand University of Medical Sciences were presented in the afternoons separately from the clinical part .According to the new strategy of clinical deputy of medical school in the case of merging the theoretical courses   with clinical apprenticeship ,since past  year  the theoretical courses of pediatrics ward are presented simultaneously with apprenticeship .The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of merging theoretical courses in apprenticeship of pediatrics and gynecology wards on the scores of pre internship of medical students. Methods: This was a retrospective interventional case study and it was conducted after proper coordination and getting the scores of pre internship exam scores, the scores of students having started in 2005 were considered as the control group and the scores of students of 2006 as case group (training of merging of clinical and theoretical courses), and then the two groups were compared. Data was analyzed through SPSS 1 and descriptive statistics and frequency distribution tables and independent t-test were used for analysis (meaningfulness level (p)≥ 0.03). Results: Totally, there were 89 participants in this study. 40 people participated in control group (entrance year of 2005) and 49 (entrance year of 2006) in case group. The mean score of pre internship exam in pediatrics course was higher in the control group but it wasn’t statistically meaningful. On the other hand, the score of the students of the case group in gynecology course was significantly higher than the score of control group (p=0.001). Conclusions: The results showed that in both merged courses the mean score of pre internship exam in case group was higher than control group which implies the necessity of more planning in this case.