Qom University of Medical Sciences Journal

Dear Editor
During the last few decades, the promotion and evaluation of clinical teaching skills in college professors has received serious attention; however, there have been no comprehensive study regarding the effectiveness of these evaluation programs [1, 2] or few programs contain measurable outputs [3]. In two review studies conducted in 2006 and 2016, Steinert stated that the most common method of faculty development is educational workshops, and these faculty development programs do not follow a theoretical framework; in most studies, the evaluation of the effectiveness of faculty development programs has been only in the form of self-assessment [4, 5]. One of the tools introduced for evaluation of the teaching effectiveness in college professors is the objective structured teaching exercise (OSTE) [1, 6]. In addition to measuring the effectiveness of faculty development programs, OSTE helps professors acquire teaching skills. Due to providing a standard realistic environment under simulated scenarios, it can also be used to practice teaching skills in medical education. Stations in OSTE provide an opportunity for professors to observe and receive direct feedback from the students or peers based on measurables and standardized standards [1, 3, 7, 8, 9]. In a study conducted in the Faculty of Medicine at Qom University of Medical Sciences in Iran, we investigated the effectiveness of faculty development and evaluated the empathy and communication skills of 28 clinical professors. The results showed that OSTE was a useful educational method for improving empathy and communication skills of professors by providing favorable learning conditions and a valid evaluation method for these two skills. Moreover, the extracted themes showed that OSTE provided an opportunity for the active participation of professors and standardized students in a simulated teaching process. We used Donald Schön’s theory and, for the first time, we taught both medical and psychological students to play the role of standardized students and patients at the OSTE station. The study included both short- and long-term evaluations. Our findings seem to support the effectiveness of OSTE based on Schön’s theory, in improving or maintaining the clinical professors’ empathy and communication skills.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This article is taken from Nasr Institute's research project (Ethics Code: 970281).
Funding
This research was done with the financial support of Nasr Institute.
Authors contributions
This research did not receive any grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or non-profit sectors.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgements
The authors of the article are grateful to Nasr Research Institute for the financial support of this research.