What Iranian health authorities think about the integration of medical education and health services

Abstract

This present article aims at exploring the Iranian experience of integration of medical education with health services by surveying the viewpoints of the authorities involved in the implementation of the plan. Questionnaires were designed and distributed among 127 senior managers at universities, such as chancellors and vice chancellorso, Professors, heads of educational departments and those authorities in the ministry of health and medical education who have been involved in the plan for integration since 1993. The findings of the analysis of the questionnaires reveal that the integration plan has been considered as partly successful by the majority of the participants. The participants' viewpoints in the open-ended questionnaires indicate the pros and cons in the implementation of the plan. The result of the analysis is fed back into the system. Integration of medical education into health services. This integration occurred in three stages: The first stage was the establishment of the Ministry of Health which had responsibility for all medical care in the country. The second stage was the expansion of the Ministry of Health into Ministry of Health, treatment and medical education in 1985. The third stage was the separation of medical education and training from ministry of higher education and its integrating into the ministry of health, treatment and medical education in 1993. Nadim (1999) in his final report on the reasons behind phasing out the previous health ministry and establishing the integrated ministry set out the objectives of the integration as follows: - to improve the quality of community oriented medical education - to improve the quality of health care services - to improve the quality of health care services offered by non-teaching hospitals - to improve health care services offered by teaching hopitals.