Examining the Opinions of Medical students Regarding the Process of the Thesis Implementation and Its Importance in Medical Education

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Introduction: Examining the opinions of medical students about the thesis, its implementation process, and its effectiveness can make the planners, familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of the existing conditions and provide the possibility of its correction. The present study was conducted to investigate the opinions of medical students of Ahvaz JundiShapur University of Medical Sciences regarding the process of general medical thesis implementation. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the opinions of 247 medical students of Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences were examined through a researcher-made questionnaire whose validity and reliability were confirmed. Questionnaires were distributed and collected face to face and online. Data were analyzed using chi-square and independent t-test through SPSS . Results: Students with an average score of 1.36 out of 3 stated that the thesis course has little importance and necessity in the curriculum of general medicine course. With an average of 2.5 out of 3, they wanted to replace the clinical course with a thesis course. Students with an average score of 1.85 out of 3 stated that they are relatively satisfied with the ability and cooperation of their guidance teachers. The results showed that there is no statistically significant difference between the students about the importance and necessity of the thesis course by gender (p=0.22, t=1.22) and the grade point average (GPA) (p=0.15, t=1.43). 89 (%79.7) female student and 106 (%85.5) male student stated that if the "thesis" was optional, they would not choose it (p=0.15). No significant difference was observed between the students by GPA with choosing the thesis if it was optional (p=0.41). Conclusion: According to the results, medical students were relatively satisfied with the ability and cooperation of the supervisors in completing the thesis, but they believed that the thesis unit is not very important in their medical profession and future career, and they wanted to replace it with clinical training courses.