Iranian Journal of Medical Microbiology

Background and Aim: Nowadays, clinical laboratories play important roles in health care systems and well-trained staff are in need more than ever before. Thus, educating students in this field is one of the best approaches in saving energy and expenditure of health-care systems in any community. The aim of this descriptive study was to assess the different aspects of the pedagogical curriculum for Iranian laboratory science students compared with that of world's leading universities.

Materials and Methods: In 2014, pedagogical curriculum of this major in Iran was compared to the curriculum of 17 prestigious universities in the world. Also, a questionnaire was filled out by the faculty members of medical universities who were involved in training clinical laboratory science's students.

Results: The results showed that the Iranian curriculum has various drawbacks in clinical apprenticeship for students, and is short of specific credits such as Microbiology and Immunohematology. In addition, lack of practical or applied credits like Urine Analysis, Body Fluids, Microscopy and Medical Ethics was noticed. It was discovered that little attention was paid to preparing students for research.

Conclusions: Considering the findings of the current survey, decreasing the credits offered in each semester with proper training course scheduling and monitoring the students, will not only help the students to proper learning, but also lead to the delivery of other goals. Also, due to the significant role of these students in the healthcare system, it is necessary to hold practical and theoretical exams of this course before entrance of students to the labor market in order to prevent the probable detrimental impacts on the healthcare system.