Quality of Clinical Education as a Propulsive Engine for Academic Satisfaction: A Cross-Sectional Study at Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran

Abstract

Background: Clinical education is known as an essential part of education in medicine and medical education. Beyond factors that can affect the quality of clinical education, academic satisfaction is a factor that can either affect or is affected by the quality of clinical education. Objectives: The present study was designed to investigate the relationship between the quality of clinical education and academic satisfaction through medical students’ viewpoints at Birjand University of Medical Science, Birjand, Iran. Methods: In the present cross-sectional study, medical students in both the externship and internship courses of Birjand University of Medical Sciences were evaluated with a self-report questionnaire. The quality of clinical education was assessed by a specific scale developed by Rezaei. Academic satisfaction was evaluated by Motlagh et al.’s questionnaire. Results: A total of 180 medical students were included in the study. The findings indicated that despite the poor quality of clinical education from the perspective of the studied medical students (P = 0.017), their academic satisfaction with the current situation was acceptable (P = 0.0001). Further correlational analysis revealed a significant relationship between the quality of clinical education and its subgroups with academic satisfaction (P < 0.01). Conclusions: It can be concluded that higher clinical education quality leads to higher levels of academic satisfaction among medical students. Therefore, this issue requires continuous revisions of the clinical education curriculum and adherence to improve its outcomes.