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Medical School Department Chair Performance Improvement: A Qualitative Study Publisher Pubmed



Mahboubi M1, 2 ; Ahmady S3 ; Mirzazadeh A4 ; Zarei A5 ; Hamidi H6 ; Kohan N1
Authors
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Authors Affiliations
  1. 1. Department of Medical Education, Smart University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  2. 2. Abadan University of Medical Sciences, Abadan, Iran
  3. 3. School of Management and Medical Education, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  4. 4. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
  5. 5. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical Education, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran
  6. 6. Department of English Language, School of Health Management and Information Sciences, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Source: PLoS ONE Published:2024


Abstract

Introduction In medical education, department chairs should play a significant role. The present qualitative study was conducted to identify factors that influence the performance improvement of department chairs at medical schools in Iran. Methods The study was conducted in Iran in 2022 and used a thematic analysis method. Using a purposeful sampling method, 20 participants were invited to participate, including medical school deans and department chairs. Focus group discussion (FGD) was used for qualitative data gathering. Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis was used to analyze data. Results There were 18 males and 2 females among the participants. The mean age of the participants was 45±4 years. Five overarching themes were formulated: human resource management, organizational behavior management, performance support system, leadership, and financial resources. Also, nine subthemes emerged, including performance evaluation, job and work design, educational and non-educational support, motivational efforts, organization culture, organizational knowledge management, planning for change, and financing. Conclusions In this study, we found factors influencing DC performance improvement. Department chairs’ effective performance may have a positive impact on department operations, processes, or outcomes. © 2024 Mahboubi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.