What are the Sources of Learning Medical Skills for Medical Students and Interns of Birjand University of Medical Sciences and Health Services?

Background and purpose: More attention to clinical skill training is essential for better medical education. In this study, the sources students used for learning these skills are investigated Methods: In this cross-sectional study all medical students who at least passed 6 month of theirclinical rotations and all interns participated. A questionnaire was used to collect the data which includes items on demographic data and items about the setting and sources of learning procedural skills. The questionnaires were developed based on a review of clinical skill training in ShahidBeheshti Tabriz, Tehran, Isfahan, and Kerman Universities of Medical Sciences. The questionnaire was examined for content validity by a panel of experts including 6 faculty members. For assessing the reliability of the questionnaire, a test-retest procedure on 10 students was conducted with an r = 0.85.To analyse the data we used SPSS ver. 16 and to examine the significance of findings we used a t-test and chi-square test.Results: In this study 90 medical students and interns participated of all participants, 49 were interns; 45.6% were male. The interns were more likely to learn the more common procedures including intravenous blood sampling intramuscular injection, subcutaneous injection, urinary catheter placement, naso gastric tube placement, wound dressing and care, stitching, splinting from hospital staff and 25% of interns had no learning source for more advanced procedure such as intubation and CPR while only 20% of them learned these skills from specialist. Conclusion: It seems that more faculty members involvement with students’ skill training and promoting more effective use of skill labs potential can improve the clinical skill training of medical graduates.