Abstract
BACKGROUND: Unlike in the past, when students were considered clients of universities, today, students are expected to be partners in designing, implementing and evaluating educational programs. METHODS: In this explorative study, a questionnaire was designed and validated to assess the importance of health professions students'roles, the level of opportunities available and the level of students' preparedness to fulfill their roles from their own perspectives. Its face, content and construct validity and reliability were assessed in different steps by 25 faculty members and 468 students. The validated questionnaire was completed by 626 students to have a pilot assessment of the existing status at our university. The Mann‒Whitney U test and Kruskal‒Wallis test were used to compare the mean scores of different groups of students. The data were analyzed via SPSS version 25. RESULTS: The questionnaire with 43 items was compiled in nine roles, namely, reflective trainee; interactive knowledge seeker; active listener; role model as student/apprentice; collaborative learner; mentor; assessor; strategic and critical learner; and active participant. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were verified by acceptable measures. The mean scores of importance, opportunities and preparedness were 175 ± 27, 149 ± 29, and 145 ± 27, respectively, out of 215. A moderate correlation between the scores of preparedness and importance and a strong correlation between the scores of preparedness and opportunity were reported (P < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the mean scores across the different groups of students, except for the mean scores of importance and preparedness, which indicated higher scores of importance and readiness in female students than in male students. CONCLUSION: For the first time, a valid and acceptable questionnaire was designed and validated to assess health professions students' roles, and the 13 previously defined roles for students were redefined and categorized into9 new roles. The importance of these roles, the levels of available opportunities, and students'preparedness to play them at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences were insufficient from students' perspectives. It is recommended that the status of SaP in other Persian- or English-speaking countries be assessed via the validated questionnaire in this study.