Evaluation Investigations of Medical Science and Medical Education in Our Country

Abstract

This paper on the evaluation investigations has the purpose of stressing the bases, contents, and methods of evaluation investigations in medical Science and medical education. The spiral line representing diagrammatically the functioning of medical Science (MN) and medical education (ME) shows that the programme of Science and education, as well as the system of evaluation, must be conceived and designed first, and only then applied and evaluated. In medical Science, evaluation is made of the system, programmes and application, while in medical education the evaluated elements are the system, programmes and students.

There are seven basic types of evaluation, those concerned with: effectiveness, quality, efficacy, suitability, expeditiousness, applicability, and flexibility. Evaluations are carried out before and after the decisions about a medical investigation. After the decision has been made to start a research project, the plan and the objectives are evaluated. In the special evaluation of medical science, the system and the programmes are analysed, i.e. the organization, structure, function, programme and application. In the special evaluation of medical education, the system (the school and the teaching staff), the programme and students are analysed. The objectives of medical education are threefold: the institutional objectives, or the objectives of the school, the intermediary objective, or the objective of the subjects, and the instructional objectives, or the objectives in carrying out certain tasks. The objectives are determined on the basis of the needs of the population for health protection, stressing primarily the promotion of health and prevention, and only then curative treatment and rehabilitation. The programmes are based on the objectives, and the objectives are based on the tasks, activities, functions, and the role of health workers (the profile).

The evaluation of students should be formative and certificative. The formative one evaluates the student’s progress in the course of his/her studies and is used by the student and the teacher as an orientation index. It should not be confused with the certificative evaluation, which is episodic, unpleasant for the student, and serves only to protect the society from the unsatisfactory medical personnel.

The medical education which is not well planned, programmed, applied and evaluated is more damaging than the total lack of such education. Medical education must be relevant, professionally competent and evaluated.