Rearrangement of Morning Report Sessions: An Action Research

Background: Morning report (MR) is one of the most common methods in medical education. It is effective for improvement of the communication skills, problem solving abilities, and clinical reasoning among learners. This study aimed to evaluate and rearrange the MR sessions in the department of obstetrics and gynecology of Imam Reza Hospital in Mashhad. Method: This study was an action research. The first step  included observation of current sessions, formation of focus groups, and conducting a training workshop regarding the principles of MR. Fourty-six individuals including 25 medical interns, 14 residents, and 7 faculties participated in the study within two months. Then , evaluation of the sessions was done and the effect of the intervention was evaluated. Results: Some of the significantly improved items are: the method of patient selection by selecting common diseases (P= 0.010), announcing the patient s file number (P= 0.000), the patient’s follow up (P= 0.000) and declaring the person responsible for patient’s follow-up (P= 0.000), writing the list of the patients on the board before the meeting (P= 0.042), proper management of the meeting (P= 0.000), referring to proper articles (P= 0.000), and managing the duration of the presentation (P= 0.000), documenting the summary of the patient history (P= 0.000), documenting the key points of history (P= 0.000), providing appropriate feedback to the provider (P= 0.010), and paying attention to complications (P=0.001). Conclusion: The methods of holding MR differ from defined standards in many educational centers worldwide. Thus, various aspects of meetings, including structural principles of holding MR, timing, patient selection, attention to intern and resident training at different stages, and compliance with ethical issues still need to be reviewed.