Faculty Members' Skills and Educational Needs Concerning Clinical Teaching Methods in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Identifying faculty members' skills and their educational needs in teaching is necessary for planning faculty development programs. This study was designed to determine faculty members' educational needs and their skills concerning teaching methods during teaching medical clerkship and internship courses in order to coordinate the content of educational workshop according to their needs. Methods: In a descriptive study, 108 faculty members teaching clerkship and internship courses in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences were selected by random stratified sampling and completed a 16 item questionnaire as self-administered. The questionnaire was about their skills and educational needs in teaching methods of clinical internship and clerkship courses. The data was analyzed by SPSS software using frequency distribution, mean, standard deviation, and linear regression. Results: Faculty members had educational needs in all 16 areas under investigation. They considered their skills at proficiency level in implementation but low level in using evaluation feed-back for improving performance, video recording and making educational films. Their most important priorities for education were information resources and full-text journals, clinical skills evaluation, and using evaluation results for identifying their weaknesses in teaching. The results showed no significant relationship between the subjects' skills and educational needs, and their demographic characteristics. Conclusion: Although faculty members evaluated their skills almost at proficiency level in most areas, they needed more education. It seems that teaching methods and student assessment workshops have to be revised and the content of the workshops should be designed according to the needs of the faculty members. It is also recommended to use different educational methods such as workshops, books and pamphlets, self-learning materials, and educational films to respond to faculty members' educational needs.