Methodology for monitoring the impact of specialists training in the University of Medical Sciences of Matanzas

Abstract

Introduction: The impact of a program of postgraduate training with professional view could be defined as its repercussion in favorable changes in the students´ competence levels, their performance in their work places, the efficiency and competitiveness of the organizations and their effectiveness in the internal and external environment. The educative institutions do not always have the effective instruments for evaluating these impacts, important aspect to assess the pertinence and the social impact of the training programs. Objective: to elaborate a methodology for evaluating the monitoring of the training impact in medical specialties. Materials and methods: the elaborated methodology is based on the Subsystem of Evaluation and Accreditation of Postgraduate Specialties [Subsistema de Evaluación y Acreditación de Especialidades de Posgrado(SEA-EP) en español] and the analysis of the patterns of evaluating the impact of the existent training which includes a proper tool to evaluate the impact of that training, based mainly in a group of enquiries and interviews. Results: it confirms a contribution to the systemic and integrative evaluation of the training process, showing the pertinence of the designed methodology, with the inclusion of a proper instrument. Conclusion: the proposed methodology was conceived with an integrative, systemic and comprehensive point of view of the training. The designed questionnaires gather great quantity of information, according to the Quality Pattern of SEA-EP, being therefore more efficacious to assess its impact, the intrinsic quality of the training process and to determine opportunities of improvement in it.

Key words: postgraduate training, medical specialties, quality, evaluation and accreditation, methodological work, monitoring impact.