horizontal integration in basic sciences in kerman university of medical sciences, medical students’ viewpoint

Background: integrated curriculum is a strategy in educational planning. recently, this strategy has been introduced to medical universities in iran. the strategy is running at a different level in some of the universities including kerman university of medical sciences (kums). in this study, students’ viewpoints toward the horizontal integration of basic sciences were assessed. methods: this cross-sectional study was carried out on 144 fourth- and fifth-year medical students at kums. they were selected using the census method. data was collected using a questionnaire that contained demographic data, 26 questions about different aspects of the horizontal integration program in basic sciences and 2 questions about students’ satisfaction with the program. the range of viewpoint and satisfaction scores were 0 to 104 and 0 to 10, respectively. data was analyzed by spss 19. results: the majority of participants 83 (57.6%) were female. the means of their viewpoint and satisfaction scores were 58.44 ± 10.61 and 5.48 ± 2.11, respectively. these scores had no statistically significant difference according to age, gender, entrance year and grade point average (gpa) (p > 0.05). only students’ satisfaction score had a significant direct correlation with gpa (r= 0.3, p = 0.006). conclusion: although our study revealed a positive viewpoint toward the new educational method, this reaction is the first step of evaluation and the next stages of evaluation must be conducted to determine existing problems.