Journal of

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Background and Aim: Ever-increasing development of access to appropriate software and hardware for e-learning especially development of worldwide web has suggested new horizons for educational institutes. It is much important in medical sciences, because Medical Sciences deal with the health of human beings. Since beside issues related to education, research and information production, appropriate treatment of the patients is possible through having up to date and new information as well. For this reason Medical Sciences utilize information technology as soon as possible in order to prepare essential information for physicians quickly. This article discusses the role of e-learning in Medical Sciences universities.

Materials and Methods: in this literature review article, gathering information has been done by using paper and paperless documents related to the topic.

Results: For implementing of e-learning in Medical Sciences organization there should be some infra-structures, standards and skills which are to be noted prior to commencing e-learning. These     infra-structures, standards and skills play a special role in successful implementation of e-learning.

Conclusion: Regarding the advantages of e-learning naturally possesses, there is no doubt in necessity of developing Medical Sciences e-learning. But the ways of efficient access to this sort of education is much more important. So, it is recommended that by comparing the existing process in the world and using the experiences of prominent countries in this field, the most appropriate method be chosen and applied.

 

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Background and Aim: Electronic learning system is a new educational process which designed upon basis of computerized technology, multimedia and processors. It has several potentials and contexts.
To do comparative study and utilizing of successful electronic learning in developed countries could help us to develop this new process in Iran's Universities of  Medical Sciences.

Materials and Methods: This research is developed descriptive comparative study in 2007 - 2008 by using of developed countries universities websites information and 62 references and keywords such as Electronic Educations,Medical Sciences Courses,Commutation Technology, Comparative Study and University in the field of electronic medical sciences. Then, the findings will compare with each developed countries universities and Iran's Universities of Medical Sciences.

Results: The results showed that Manchester and Dekin University have much experience in developing of electronic learning. The Students should be assessed by attendance, online and blended in developed universities.
Degree based courses are only present in South - Africa University, meanwhile single courses and training are present in other universities. Electronic health sciences courses and training are developed much more in compressive with others.

Discussion and Conclusion: The studied universities are different in history of construction, student assessment type, homework presence type, registration procedures, electronic medical education type with each other.
Iran's Universities of Medical Sciences, electronic education have several deficiencies in comparison with developed countries universities. We suggest appropriate technological and cultural infrastructure and use's skill improvement to develop this process in our country's universities of Medical sciences.

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Background and Aim: Homogeneity and Oneness is the feature of abstracting. These can't be achieved, without adherence to guidelines and international standards. The purpose of this study is evaluation of compliance abstracts of Persian-language journals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, with ISO 214 & Vancouver's group guideline, in year 2009.

Materials and Methods: Survey-descriptive method was adapted. The study sample included all full-text journal Reviews in English Persian language belonging to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. These journals were significant in TUMS website to date (30/2/2009). Total 100 abstracts from the latest issue of the journal articles for instance, were randomly selected. The data collected through two control lists separately, reflecting the standards of ISO 214 and instructions group in Vancouver for abstract writing. The data were analyzed by software and statistical techniques.

Results: The average overall rate of compliance with ISO standards Review is 85/37 percent (SD 24/93 percent), and group instructions Vancouver is 84/44 percent (SD 24/36). Review of the "express findings" had the most and the "sub results presented" had minimum compliance with ISO standards. The "keyword existence" and "noted the findings" had the most and the "being derived from the headings keywords subject had "minimum compliance with the instructions in Vancouver group.

Discussion and Conclusion: The abstract compliance with ISO 214 and Vancouver instruction was desirable. More comply from ISO 214 in "results presented" and Vancouver group instruction in, keywords subject in medicine seems to be required.

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Background and Aim: The hierarchical and bureaucratic form of governmental administration is changing into a new type of flexible and market-based public management called Enterpreneurial Management Revolution. According to Stevenson, entrepreneurial management comprises a number of opportunity-based management activities for the maintenance of organizations in order to have their contribution in social value creation. This research study aims to study the organizational performance of medical sciences universities of Tehran based on Stevenson Model.

Materials and Methods: This research is a field study in which a structured questionnaire containing 22 main questions on the Likert Scale was distributed among the staff members of medical sciences universities in Tehran. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts and its reliability was estimated using Test- Retest Method. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was found to be 0.95. The data collection device was given to 379 staff members, of whom 325 filled it out. The data were completely recorded and then analyzed by SPSS software version 18.

Results: The results of the study show that regarding entrepreneurial management approach, medical universities are at an average level.
According to the present research and all related studies, this is the case in all other governmental organizations.

Conclusion: The results of the study indicate that organizational restructuring, decentralization, and continuous improvement in processes are the milestones of entrepreneurial revolution strategies in medical universities and all other public organizations.

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Background and Aim: Investigations have indicated that general health is associated with behavior style and interpersonal relationships. The present study was performed in order to investigate the relationship between general health and leadership style in managers at Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, and its effect on job satisfaction in staff.

Materials and Methods: 33 managers and 132 staff were randomly selected. Participants completed Pourbaneh leadership style, Goldberg general health and Herzberg job satisfaction questionnaires. In order to analysis data Pearson correlation coefficient, independent t test and Chi-square were used.

Results: There is a positive relationship between manager's general health and their leadership style and also between manager's leadership style and job satisfaction in staff. Also there is no significant difference between numbers of managers in 4 kinds of leadership styles.

Conclusion: Empathy, self awareness, high motivation and self confidence, are characteristics that cause positive relationship between general health and participative leadership style. These characteristics also increase self-confidence, motivation and thus increase job satisfaction in staff.

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Background and Aim: This study aimed to assess the factors affecting organizational innovation and entrepreneurship at medical sciences universities in Iran. Such universities provide a wide range of services and products including prevention (hygiene), treatment (medical care), rehabilitation and palliative care, as well as their important mission, i. e., higher education and research in related fields.

Materials and Methods: In this study, the researchers developed and examined a model for organizational innovation and entrepreneurship, including 16 factors classified into structure, content (behavior) and context (periphery) of the subject.
The data collection instrument was a pre-structured questionnaire containing 58 core questions on the Likert scale. The validity of the questionnaire was computed by elites, and its reliability was estimated using Cronbach's Alpha (94%). Of 389 questionnaires, 325 were collected and their data were analyzed by SPSS software, version 18.

Results: The three factors -- structural (structure), behavioral (content) and peripheral (context) -- which affect innovation and entrepreneurship are not favorable at medical universities.

Conclusion: This study shows that structural, behavioral and peripheral factors are the most important, which affect innovation and organizational entrepreneurship at medical sciences universities.

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Background and Aim: Internal Evaluation is a process of providing evaluative-descriptive information based on the value and significance of educational objectives, operations and results to direct decisions, responses, information and research processes.

Materials and Methods: In this research, studying the opinions of faculty members, students, and graduates, the educational system of Medical Laboratory Sciences Department at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) was evaluated in the year 2010. The aim the study was to remodel and adjust the educational system with the society's needs and to promote the educational quality. The employed method was a cross-sectional, descriptive one and consisted of 10 procedural steps in eight sections dealing with the evaluated factors such as faculty members and students, and the satisfaction expressed by students.

Results: The results of the study showed that the average of the eight investigated sections was 70.6% for the Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, which can be interpreted as desirable.

Conclusion: Internal evaluation can be considered as one of the best methods of improving the quality of education in the faculty of Allied Health Sciences School

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Background and Aim: Self-reliance is a psychological belief that is formed in an individual during growth and is not changed easily and quickly.
The present study aims to evaluate the relationship between nursing managers' self-reliance and patients' satisfaction in hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences(TUMS).

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 400 individuals(200 nursing managers and 200 patients) were interviewed in various clinical wards of TUMS hospitals. Nursing managers' self-reliance and patients' satisfaction were evaluated using a structured questionnaire.
The data were entered into Stata 11 software and analyzed with non-parametric ANOVA and Spearman's correlation coefficient tests. The significance level was determined to be p<0.05.

Results: Of the nursing managers, 58(29%) were male and 142(71%) were female. The mean and SD of their self-reliance were 134.9 and 19.8, respectively. The patients, however, comprised 81(40.5%) males and 118(59.5%) females. The mean and the standard deviation of patients' satisfaction were 57 and 18.2, respectively the only individual factors affecting their level of satisfaction were educational level(p<0.005) and insurance status(p<0.0001). Besides, a multivariate analysis showed that there was a significant negative association between managers' self-esteem and patients' satisfaction(P=0.04).

Conclusion: The findings revealed that female managers had less self-esteem than male managers. Moreover, it showed that managers' higher self-esteem would cause patients' lower satisfaction. Furthermore, patients with higher education and/or with health insurance were more satisfied than others.

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Background and Aim: Focus on organizational health could ensure the future success of any organization. Considering the fast changing conditions of hospitals and the necessity of effectiveness, employees are required who can show voluntary behavior towards the organization and customers. Therefore, this study mainly aims to survey the relationship between organizational health and organizational citizenship behavior in selected hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences(TUMS).

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytic study was conducted in 2010. The population of the study comprised the entire staff of TUMS selected hospitals. In total, 312 employees were selected. The researchers gathered their data using questionnaires of organizational health and organizational citizenship behavior. For data analysis, both descriptive statistics(percentage, mean, standard deviation and variance) and inferential statistics(Pearson correlation and regression) were applied. The data were analyzed using SPSS18 software.

Results: The correlation between the organizational health and five dimensions of organizational citizenship behavior(Conscientiousness, Altruism, Helping Behavior, Civil Virtue, Sportsmanship, and Courtesy) was significant(p = 0/0001).

Conclusion: Given this significant correlation between organizational health and organizational citizenship behavior, organizations can make improvements in employees' behavior. This can be achieved by creating harmony among members and through continuous improvement and growth.

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Background and Aim: Analysis of functions enables organizations to identify their special capabilities and weak points accurately and thus they can enhance capabilities and reduce impacts of threats and obstacles through such analysis. The main goal of this work is investigation of status of Weisbord Model's variables (6 variables) as functional dimensions of management in hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences.

Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive - analytical study. The study population consisted of 384 staffs from hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Standardized questionnaire for organization recognition was used for data collection. Descriptive statistics (frequency distribution, frequency percentage) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient and significance level) were used for statistical analysis and data analysis was run using SPSS software.

Results: The results showed that there is a significant difference (p=0.0001) in hospitals in terms of the internal situation. Internal situation of all hospitals in the study was evaluated as favorable condition by obtaining 94.5 score out of 125. Among the hospitals, Hashemi-Nejad Hospital with highest score (113) showed the better condition and Rasoul Hospital had the lowest score (87) and lower condition as compared to other hospitals.

Conclusion: Necessity of systematic perspective in designing and development of fair compensation mechanism with presence of representatives of employees is an action which can considerably influence improvement of current situation in the hospitals and facilitates achieving predetermined goals of the organization

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 Background and Aim: Strategic thinking plays a very important role in guarding organizational survival and increasing development in today's dynamic and changing environment. One of the elements of strategic thinking is systemic thinking, which forms the conceptual framework to solve issues in an organization. This study aims to determine the ability of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) senior managers to stick to systemic thinking based on Friedrik Goldman’s model.

Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional, descriptive- analytic study conducted on a sample of 100 TUMS senior managers in 2010. The data collection instrument was a standard questionnaire on systemic thinking, the response rate of which turned out to be 97%. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were confirmed prior to its distribution. SPSS software was used for data analysis. To this end, single sample t-test and Friedman statistical methods were also applied.

Results: The findings revealed that the ability of systemic thinking was optimal among most TUMS senior managers.

Conclusion : Enhancing and strengthening systemic thinking among TUMS senior managers are suggested, especially regarding omniscient and multi-end approach.

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Background and Aim: Employees suggestion plan (ESP) is designed to encourage and improve employees’ participation in developmental planning. The establishment of this system needs cultural, individual and structural preparedness. This study is aimed to determine organizational preparedness in Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS).

Materials and Methods: This research was a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study conducted in TUMS headquarters in Tehran, Iran. The heterogeneous sample of this study consisted of 155 employees. They were asked to fill out a researcher-made questionnaire to assess their attitude towards organizational preparedness for ESP establishment. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed. The data were analyzed by SPSS, and descriptive results were presented. The data were also analyzed by Friedman and ANOVA statistical methods.

Results: Most of the employees had a positive attitude towards the existence of individual and cultural preparedness for ESP establishment in TUMS. However, they believed the desired structural preparedness for this process did not exist.

Conclusion : The desired organizational preparedness for ESP establishment exists in TUMS, although structural preparedness is not desirable. Therefore, it is suggested that necessary modifications should be made in TUMS organizational structure for effective ESP implementation.

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Background and Aim: Despite all inherent advantages of information technology in health sector, its implementation still faces many problems. One of the most important barriers is people’s resistance. This study was carried out to survey the factors affecting the acceptance of information technology by Health Information Management (HIM) staff of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) hospitals based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in 2011.

Materials and Methods: It is a descriptive-analytical survey. The population of the study consisted of the HIM staff (363 members) of TUMS hospitals. As the sample, 123 employees were selected. The data gathering tool was a questionnaire the validity and reliability of which were confirmed. The data were collected and analyzed by SPSS software, descriptive statistical methods and Spearman Test.

Results: The results showed that there was a positive direct relationship between perceived ease of use (PEOU) on the one hand and the staff’s attitude and their application of IT on the other hand (R=0.14, P= 0.05 R=0.36, P=0.05). Also, perceived usefulness (PU) had a significant direct effect on the staff’s attitude and their application of IT (R=0.22, P= 0.05 R=0.37, P=0.05).

Conclusion : Perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU) are the factors affecting the acceptance of information technology by the HIM staff of TUMS hospitals. Therefore, it is suggested that the above two principles be considered when designing and implementing the IT systems.

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Background and Aim: Motivation and satisfaction of manpower are the most important variables in the field of organizational behavior and because of the strong relationship between these two variables with the job and organization productivity, it’s necessary to look job characteristics as increasing factor of employee satisfaction and performance in redesigning jobs. The objective of this study was determining motivating potential score (MPS) of the jobs and survey the relation between MPS and job satisfaction in staff employees of educational and research deputy of TUMS (Tehran University of Medical Science).

Materials and Methods: This was a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study. The research context was to staff employee of education and research deputy of TUMS. Sampling frame of the study was simple random sampling. Data collection method was a questionnaire. Reliability of the questionnaire was ascertained with pilot study with and confirm with Cranach's Alpha. T-test and Pearson correlation were the analytical methods.

Results: The results showed the jobs of the study population have skill variety, task identity, task significance and potential motivation but haven't job authority and feedback. The findings showed there was significant relation between motivating potential power and its dimensions with the job satisfaction ( P<0.05 ).

Conclusion : The job characteristic have great impact on the job satisfaction so this model can be used for redesigning the jobs to increase job satisfaction.

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 Background and Aim: Personal Information Management (PIM) is a novel approach comprising three interactive parts of information resources, dimensions, and tools. The main aim of this study was to determine the degree of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) management and information science students’ familiarity with PIM process.

 Materials and Methods: The present work is a qualitative-applied study and the population includes 145 TUMS management and medical information students in 2012. The subjects were randomly selected and the data were finally obtained from 73 persons through semi-structured interviews. The data collection tool was a questionnaire with 10 open-ended questions classified based on the conceptual framework  of interviews. The questions were about how to acquire, organize, maintain, and retrieve information. To analyse the interviews, the qualititative data analysis software Nvivo 8 was employed.  

 Results: According to the obtained results, 51% (37 persons) of interviewed persons have applied methods and tools in order to organize and maintain information and have had exclusive methods to retrieve information. The most frequent worries were the information storage 49% (35 persons) and acquiring information 29% (21 persons).

 Conclusion: It is noteworthy to say that the PIM approach is not very popular among university students, and many of them acquire, maintain, and organize their personal information inappropriately in spite of their need for the method. Therefore, educating the students and promoting their performance can result in the improvement of main PIM-related problems.

 

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 Background and Aim: Every educational system, whether micro or macro, needs its training programs to be studied and educationally evaluated. This study aims to assess training and internship programs in hospitals based on surveying the students of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS).

 Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study with survey descriptive design. The data collection tool was a questionnaire with 14 five-point Likert style items. The TUMS Educational Development Center (EDC) surveyed all 185 students of training and internship programs, using a questionnaire with the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.81 in 2011, in order to adjust the education with the society’s needs and to improve its quality.

 Results: The mean assessment scores of training and internship programs were 3.32%, 2.98%, 3.38%, and 3.29% for applied training, mental skills, communication skills, and practical skills courses, respectively.

 Conclusion: The students’ satisfaction rate regarding the quality of educational courses of training and internship programs was 50.2%. Educational authorities have made necessary attempts to implement these programs and use potential resources for realizing the objectives and achieving the educational quality however, they should make further attempts in this regard.

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 Background and Aim: Critical thinking helps to raise awareness and knowledg e growth by applying the mental processes such as analysis , inference and reasoning. So, it provides an appropriate context for problem solving as well as clear and accurate information-based decision making in different managerial and political areas. The aim of this study was to assess and compare academic librarians in terms of having critical thinking skills.

Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive- analytical survey that was conducted cross- sectionally on 95 librarians working in Shiraz University and Shiraz University of Medical Sciences by Census method. Data collect ion was conducted through the translated version of t he standard questionnaire of California critical thinking skills test: form B., that its validity and reliability have also been proved (validity according to subject specialists: 80-84% and Cronbach's reliability test : 74%). For descriptive analysis of data obtained from 68 completed questionnaires, the descriptive statistics using frequency distribution tables , mean and standard deviation and for inferential analysis SPSS software , t- test , ANOVA, Pearson correlation coefficient and spearman were used .

Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups of librarians , in terms of different sections of critical thinking . There was no relationship between age and job tenure and critical thinking, While there was a significant difference between sex and degree with critical thinking.

Conclusion: The results of this study and other similar studies can provide useful information to develop the critical thinking skills in academic librarians and help the academic excellence in our country .

 

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Background and Aim: One of the perennial questions for hospitals and insurance organizations are the real cost of g lobal surgery. The aim of this study was to compare the cost of global surgery bills with approved tariffs in hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences Medical Sciences .

Materials and Methods: This was a cross – sectional study . The study population included all hospitalized patient bills eligible for global tariff at nine selected hospitals (include: Imam Khomeini, Shariati, Arash, Fatemeh Alzahra, Zanan, Cancer Institute and Razi) affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences in 2012. Checklist was used for data collection. Data about the real costs of surgical procedures were collected from the patients' bills . Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics in SPSS version 16 software .

Results: The results showed that a total of 90 included global tariff surgical, 68 surgical procedures were performed in nine selected hospitals. Except seven surgical procedures in other cases (61 cases), the real costs of surgical procedures average 3 -312 percent more than approved global tariff. The surgical procedure "Septoplasty" had the most difference with global tariff.

Conclusion: The results showed that surgical global tariff are not real, and lead to the hospitals financial loss. Therefore, it is recommended that to prevent the hospital financial loss in the calculation of the g lobal t ariff factors such as patient age , presence or absence of comorbidity and complication, disease severity, length of stay and inflation rates in country to be considered .

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Background and Aim: Today universities admit International Students as well as national students. Tehran University of Medical Sciences has been also started admitting International Students in regards of its Internationalization aims. Student’s satisfaction is of high importance in order to gain the given goals. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the satisfaction of International students of TUMS.

Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive study. The target group was international students of TUMS, the participants were selected through availability sampling. The research instrument was researcher-made questionnaire which the reliability calculated as 0.97 by Chronbach’s alpha. The data was analysied by Microsoft Excell version 2010.

Results: The overall satisfaction of the students was 70% (satisfied and completely satisfied) while the overall dissatisfaction was 10% (dissatisfied and completely dissatisfied).

Conclusion: Given satisfaction of more than half of the International students, TUMS has performed reasonably. Based on the results obtained in this research the university may pay attention to the fields reported as dissatisfied.

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Background and Aim: Materials and methods, as one of the most important parts of a paper, introduces its scientific value. This study aims to investigate the methodological quality of publications of Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) indexed in PubMed. Materials and Methods: In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, 400 articles affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences and indexed in PubMed until the end of 2012 were investigated. The type, purpose and subject matter of all these articles were recorded in a checklist. Results: The most frequently published reports were cross-sectional studies (41.3%), followed by case-control studies (14.5%), case reports (14.3%), clinical trials (13%), narrative reviews (4.8%), animal studies (3.3%), quantitative studies (2.8%), quasi-experimental studies (2%), cohort studies (1.8%), case series (1%), meta-analysis (1%), and systematic reviews (0.5%). When the articles were classified according to National Library of Medicine (NLM) classification, most papers were about musculoskeletal system (8.5%). Over half of the articles were therapeutic (52.8%), followed by diagnostic (24.8%), prevention (12.3%), prognostic (7.8%), and etiologic (2.5%). School of Medicine, Hazrate Rasoule Akram hospital, and Endocrinology & Metabolism Research Institutes had the highest number of articles among TUMS faculties, hospitals, and research centers. Conclusion: Primary studies were the most common types observed in the articles affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses form only a small proportion of articles in the current research. It seems that there should be a revision in the researchers' priorities to publish papers with prevention purposes