Emel Hoveyzi, Jila Najafpoor, Mehrdad Sharifi, Mansour Zahiri,
Volume 15, Issue 5 (1-2022)
Abstract
Background and Aim: The growing health care needs of students actuated world Health Organization to develop School-based health projects in the last decades. The most important plan that has received worldwide attention and in Iran for nearly one decade is Health Promoting School (HPS) program which being implemented with collaboration of Ministries of Health and Education. Present qualitative study was conducted to evaluate this program implementation in Ahvaz education organization (District 1).
Materials and Methods: In this qualitative study data was collected by semi-structured interview. The study population consisted of school health experts affiliated with Ahvaz West Health Center and health deputy, health experts affiliated with education organization (District 1 and school headmasters and expert staffs in HPS (22 persons). The sampling was purposeful and the interviews continued until saturation of data. Content analysis was used for analysis of the data.
Results: Data analysis showed that most components of the HPS program in schools belong to education organization were not implemented properly. The major barriers were categorized into 5 and 47 main and subsidiary themes respectively. Poor stewardship and authority, policymaking and legislation, weaknesses in motivation, attitude and awareness of managers and experts, inadequacy in resources and infrastructure, ineptitude in program implementation and finally inappropriate evaluation system was specified as the main themes. According to results, some of the most important reasons for failure in HPS program consisted of, lack of functions definiteness between health deputy in ministry of health and education organization, job dissatisfaction in school health experts, not being a priority behalf education organization, insufficient delegation of authorized budget, lack of interpectoral cooperation between trustee organizations and indifference about program evaluation.
Conclusion: The most important challenge in the HPS program is the implementation barriers that make the establishment and implementation of this program almost ineffective. The serious and committed interaction between the ministry of Health and Education and between their respective provincial and county districts can provide the foundation for the implementation of this valuable program. A review of the organizational structure and executive framework of the program is also necessary.
Aeen Mohammadi, Fatemeh Manafi, Farangis Shoghi Shafagh Aria, Rita Mojtahedzadeh,
Volume 17, Issue 4 (10-2023)
Abstract
Background and Aim: Social accountability is defined as identifying social problems and needs, planning for resolving them and evaluating the effect of the plans. Considering the vital role in providing public health, the universities of medical sciences are the most important ones for fulfilling this mission and directing their education, research and service activities toward addressing health concerns of the community. Despite of these attempts, social accountability has not realized completely and satisfying yet. The aim of this study was exploring factors affecting social accountability and community-based medical education in universities of medical sciences from Iran’s educational development authorities’ view point.
Materials and Methods: This was a qualitative study performed by Education Development Center of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education in November 2022. Participants were 68 managers of Education Development Centers and 323 managers of Education Development Offices of schools and hospitals of universities of medical sciences in Iran. Participants were assigned to 8 focus groups. Conventional content analysis was used to extract the categories and subcategories.
Results: At the first step 541 codes were extracted which were integrated in to 86 ones after defining similarities. These codes then were categorized into 18 sub-categories and 6 categories, namely “Curriculum” including: curriculum revision, approaches, credits and longitudinal themes and new disciplines, “Community-based education” including: educational fields and creating the foundation, “Students” including: students as teacher, educating students and graduates, “Faculty members” including: faculty members’ services, motivation and compensation and administration, “Evaluation” including: student assessment and program evaluation, and “Management” including: management and leadership, organizations, Interdepartmental communication and research.
Conclusion: In this study a comprehensive collection of factors affecting SA in universities of medical sciences were identified and categorized. These factors that are compatible with medical education context in Iran can be used by top managers and educational administrators as a framework for short and long-term planning.
