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Final year experience of BSN Students in the clinical environment: Professional Pride Introduction: Clinical practice is considered a very important part of the nursing education. Effective and dynamic interactions among the students, Health care providers, instructors, and the clinical environment and its elements affect their professional development. This report is part of a major study that describes the final year experience of BSN student in the clinical environment. Methods: through this qualitative study, the data was collected from 12 undergraduate nursing students in two large nursing and midwifery schools and two new graduated students. In-depth semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of participants during their clinical placements and after graduation. The data were analyzed using the Straussian version (1998) of grounded theory method. Results: Professional pride as one of the significant findings of study was evident in experiences of participating students in the final year of their study. Professional pride as one of the most important results of the seminal study consisted of three subcategories: professional adequacy, accepted by others, and the practice of being professional. This feeling initiated and developed through last three semesters. Participants while acquiring individual capabilities and professional competencies, due to prolong presence in clinical environments had much more opportunities to interact and to make relationship with patients and health care members. In addition, they found that they must to be ready to practice in the real workplace. Conclusion: Professional pride experienced by student nurses coincided with entering to the Internship program. Revision of the philosophy, mission, and goals of the Internship program and make any modifications in execution of program in the clinical settings can result in positive effects on socialization and role transition of the student nurses. Recommendations to enhance the clinical experiences of student nurses in final year of their study were outlined.

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Background and Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between self-determined motivation and work engagement of faculty members of Iran University of Medical Sciences.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive and correlational study was performed on faculty members of Iran University of Medical Sciences in four schools of health, medicine, paraclinical and behavioral sciences, and mental health. In total, 100 subjects were selected using the Cochran formula. Research tools included work engagement (Salanova and Schaufeli [2002] with 0.99 reliability). In addition, data analysis was performed in SPSS version 21 using normality, correlation, and multiple regression tests.
Results: According to the results, 44% of the subjects were male, and 56% were female. There was a significant and positive correlation between internal, introjected, and self-determined motivation and work engagement of the faculty members. On the other hand, there was a negative and significant relationship between internal and external amotivation and work engagement of the participants. Results indicated that 22% of the variance of work engagement could be predicted based on the dimensions of self-determined work motivation. In addition, 17% of the variance of self-determined motivation could be foreseen according to the dimensions of work engagement.
Conclusion: According to the results of the study, high levels of self-determined work motivation could have positive outcomes, such as work engagement. Given the fact that work motivation could be predicted by the dimensions of work engagement, it is necessary to design methods to maintain a high level of work motivation in faculty members by planners and decision makers of this field.
 

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Background & Objective: Nursing is a practice-oriented profession and one of the main parts of its education is clinical training. Nursing clinical skills will be deteriorated if not used properly. Therefore, this study aimed to design, implement and evaluate an operational program to improve basic clinical skills in BSc nursing students based on the Kern’s framework.
Materials and Methods: This study was performed based on the stages of Kern’s framework to enhance basic clinical skills in nursing students in Abhar School of Nursing during 2016-2017 using single-group before-after intervention method. To this end, after recognizing the problem of poor clinical skills in nursing students and a primary needs assessment, the operational program and its method of evaluation were performed after being approved in the educational council of the school. During the research, reaction and knowledge of students before the program were compared to after the program based on the first and second stages of the Kirkpatrick model.
Results: In the study, the scores of basic clinical skills test of students and their level of satisfaction significantly increased after the training program. According to the students, their anxiety decreased and their self-confidence increased in the clinical environment after the course.
Conclusion: According to the results of the study, the implementation of the educational program could improve the quality and quantity of clinical education in nursing students. Therefore, it is suggested that this type of program be used by nursing education planners to enhance education quality
 

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Background & Objective: By considering the importance and position of virtual education at higher education institutes, the present study was conducted with the aim of designing and codification of detailed roadmap, as well as the successful establishment of virtual education at Zanjan University of Medical Sciences.
Materials and Methods: The present study was performed by directed content analysis method. Sources including books, articles, dissertations, and results of interview with 10 experts in this field were used to determine the effective components of successful virtual education. Data were collected by in-depth semi-structured interview and observation. The context of interviews was implemented word by word and analysis were performed at the same time. The detailed roadmap of virtual education was designed according to the strategic plan of virtual education center at Zanjan University of Medical Sciences.
Results: Four components including skills and knowledge of virtual learning, structure and process for virtual learning development, motivation and attitude, and finally standards were determined as the key components for establishment of virtual learning center at the university.
Conclusion: Findings could be used as a basis for other universities and institutes regarding the development of virtual learning and is useful for setting and establishing the virtual education centers.

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Background & Objective: Regarding the process of attraction and admission of international students, it is important to identify the academic challenges of international students and provide appropriate conditions towards meeting their academic and social needs. The present study aimed to identify the components affecting the academic status of international students in Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran.
Materials & Methods: The experiences of international students were examined from October 2019 to February 2021 using conventional qualitative content analysis and in-depth semi-structured interviews.
Results: In this study, four main themes were extracted, including occupational concerns, obstacles of effective learning, managing students’ academic and supportive affairs, and academic immigration affairs. In addition, 12 subthemes were achieved including the credibility of the university, graduation qualifications, educational content, curriculum planning, assessment and evaluation, foreign language stress, organization of administrative-educational affairs, e-learning support and infrastructure affairs, the organizational culture of internationalization, student welfare, and social affairs, consular affairs and banking and foreign exchange finance.
Conclusion: Components of language stress, the organizational culture of internationalization, the organization of administrative-educational affairs, student welfare and social affairs have been reported by other universities at home and abroad. However, considering the Covid-19 pandemic and banking sanctions against Iran, two new components of e-learning support/infrastructure affairs and banking and foreign exchange finance respectively, were achieved. Therefore, these new items need to be evaluated and provided with appropriate solutions.

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Background & Objective: Institutional accreditation is a type of quality assurance in medical education to achieve quality standards in higher education institutions. The present study aimed at internal evaluation of the faculties affiliated to Zanjan University of Medical Sciences based on the institutional accreditation standards.
Materials & Methods: This study was conducted based on a descriptive cross-sectional design. The research samples included all the faculties affiliated to Zanjan University of Medical Sciences. This study was performed based on the national institutional accreditation standards (IA), including 66 standards and 351 measures in eight evaluation domains, approved by the Ministry of Health and Medical Education. In order to conduct an internal evaluation based on institutional accreditation standards, the experts in the fields of institutional accreditation were initially provided with the necessary training. Upon the collection of documents, the data was evaluated by the research group based on the accreditation standards. In the next step, to confirm the documents and complete the internal evaluation, a field visit was conducted to the educational and research facilities of the faculties based on the accreditation standards. Finally, the faculty officials and senior managers of Zanjan University of Medical Sciences were provided with feedback on the results of the internal evaluation in the two sections of mandatory and developmental standards.
Results: As evidenced by the obtained results, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences showed significant improvement in the achievement of accreditation standards in field evaluations. The highest and lowest percentages of compliance with the standards were observed in the faculties of nursing-midwifery and health-paramedicine, respectively.
Conclusion: In order to reach an ideal level in all necessary standards and improve the quality of medical education, in addition to the provision of necessary infrastructure, managers, professors, and experts in the field of education need to be thoroughly familiar with institutional accreditation standards.

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Background & Objective: In medical education, effective teaching/learning strategies are crucial, especially those that improve academic motivation and self-control. The aim of this study was to evaluate how the doughnut round teaching method versus the traditional lecture approach affected medical students’ motivation and self-regulation.
Materials & Methods: Forty medical students participated in this semi-experimental study. The participants were divided into two groups using the random allocation method through Excel software: The A group was doughnut (20 students), while the B group followed lecture methods (20 students). Both before and after the intervention, assessments were conducted using Hatter's academic motivation scale and Bouffard's self-regulation scale. ANCOVA, the independent t-test, the paired t-test, and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test were among the statistics we employed for data analysis. Software called SPSS version 16 was used for all of our analyses.
Results: The treatment group demonstrated significant improvements in academic motivation (p < 0.001) and self-regulation (p < 0.001) in the post-test, while the control group showed no significant changes. The experimental group's pre-test and post-test scores significantly differed, indicating the effectiveness of the doughnut round teaching method in enhancing self-control and motivation.
Conclusion: The round doughnut round teaching technique significantly outperformed the standard lecture style in terms of students' academic motivation and self-regulation. This approach promotes independent study and active participation, which may improve academic performance in medical school.