Designing, implementing, and evaluating the process of training advisor and teaching assistant at Isfahan medical school

The study aimed to design, implement, and evaluate the process of advisor and teaching assistant (TA) to increase the quality of cascade training in principal educational groups, presenting the obstacles and problems of this educational intervention and introducing them to educational planners. This applied developmental research was conducted in Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in 2017-2018 in principal educational groups (internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, gynecology, and cardiology). For this purpose, a working party called TAs was composed of managers, faculty members, and active and interested assistants, including 24 people. The action plan, bylaws, job description, and logbooks were completed by the method of the focus group. Getting the report, monitoring the activity, exchanging the ideas, and drawing up the various plans were continuously done through bi-monthly in-person meetings, and the virtual group was organized for monitoring, starting a training logbook, and doing semi-organized interviews to evaluate. In a total of 1131 h, various educational activities were conducted such as cooperating with the advisor, teaching some part of a class, holding a workshop, contributing to question design, preparing the educational resources, and organizing an educational round. Improving the knowledge, attitude, and practice of assistants in cascade training, regulating their activities, learning the teaching skills, and exercising them with the teacher were some of the most significant opportunities of this study.