Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Associate Professor of Sociology, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran

Abstract

Medical education is a field consisting of complex power relationships, whose determining forces exert power inside and outside this field. Imbalance between forces leads to unusual social constructions, especially in medical professionalism. The purpose of this research is to discover and analyze the issue of medical education in Iran. In the framework of a critical study at the national level, a semi-structured interview with medical students and related administrators was conducted with 29 participants, and the data analyzed with  critical content analysis. The study showed that the quality of medical education includes a profound change of attitude towards medical ideals which leads to the formation of a feeling of alienation among medical students. Educational guidelines facilitate the process of proletarianization of the student in the clinical field. The themes analyzed in this research include being exploited, alienation, and deprofessionalization. Immediate reforms in the curriculum, creation of diversity in the general medical course in accordance with the needs of the society, creation of appropriateness between the labor market and the development of specialized courses, and reform in the payment system for medical students are suggested. In a deeper layer, identifying the power mechanisms related to the mentioned situation is a research matter and a policy-making strategy which are suggested.

Keywords

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