A Critique on Increasing the Numbers of Medical Sciences Trainees

Abstract

One of the duties of the government is to train and provide the expert workforce to provide quality health services to society. During the last four decades, the Ministry of Health and Medical Education has prioritized one of the policies to increase the number of medical science students or to improve the quality of education based on the needs of society. Following the approval and initiation of the policy to expand the number of medical sciences students and considering its proponents and opponents, in this article, various aspects of increasing students include the supply of workforce in response to the demands of society and the challenges of ensuring the quality of education has been discussed. Previous studies show this is a multifaceted issue that requires comprehensive mixed-method studies taking into account all the influencing factors such as the high tendency of health workers to immigrate, low retention in less privileged areas, economic problems and other factors. In addition, expanding the numbers requires infrastructure, concise planning to provide high-quality education, and monitoring of the educational system and learners in terms of achieving the desired competencies. In case of not paying attention to ensuring the quality of education in all three dimensions of input, process and output, the increase of numbers will ultimately be counterproductive and will lead to jeopardizing the safety and health of patients.