Perspectives of faculty members toward Iranian National Olympiad for medical students: A qualitative study

Objective ― Regarding to the status of medical science Olympiads in medical science pedagogy, the views of beneficiaries are needed to be examined on them, in particular, faculty members who are the most interested group in the given issue. As such, the purpose of this study is the evaluation of views of the faculty members on the mission and performance of medical science Olympiads in Iran. Material and Methods ― The data for this qualitative study were collected through semi-structured interviews and then were analyzed using the content-analysis method. Finally, 95 members of faculty board were selected from universities of medical sciences in Iran and data collection continued till data saturation. Results ― Four themes including: points of strength in Olympiads, points of weakness in Olympiads, attitudes of faculty members to Olympiads, and suggestions for better performance of the Olympiads were extracted. The points of strength consisted of: mission, the performing procedures, and the scientific level of the competitions. The points of weakness included: mission, the performing procedures, and the scientific level of the competitions. Most of the participants (79%) had positive attitude toward the Olympiads. Participants presented 8 strategies in order to manage the competitions better. Conclusion ― It necessary to do more researches to identify the related problems and to use the required. Applying instructor’s points and views on the strengths, weakness, and suggestions can be efficient in policy making, designing and performing medical Olympiads