Background & objectives: Clinical education plays a fundamental role in forming basic skills and professional competencies for operating room students. Understanding students’ perspectives on clinical training can help us to improve the quality of their clinical performance in the future. This study was conducted to assess the present status of clinical education from perspectives of operating room students in Ardabil University of Medical Sciences.

Methods:�A descriptive and cross-sectional design was used to carry out the study in 2014. Using consensus sampling method, 96 operating room students from the school of nursing and midwifery were involved in the study. Data gathering tool consisted of demographic data form and a researcher made questionnaire for assessing the viewpoints of students about clinical education. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics in SPSS v.16.

Results: Most of the students were female (66.7%) and most of them believed the main factors influencing the quality of clinical training were “teachers did not trust on their students in clinical practices” (60.4%), “hospital personnel were not familiar with professional ethics” (42.7%) and “negative attitude of students towards their profession” (39.6%).

Conclusion: According to the findings, accurate and concise implementation of the curriculum, providing appropriate educational atmosphere and giving awareness to instructors and hospital personnel about their responsibility regarding students and their duties may improve the quality of clinical education. 

Background & objectives: Anxiety is defined as an unpleasant and vague feeling and often is associated with a sense of uncertainty about an unknown factor. Students who are trained in the hospital settings like operating rooms are affected by stressful factors. Problem-solving is a short-term intervention that can be used to treat psychological problems. This study was carried out to evaluate the effect of problem-solving skill training on anxiety among operating room students.

Methods: This quasi-experimental study with a pre-and post-test design was conducted on operation room students of Ahvaz-Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, 2013. Data was collected by the demographic information form and Spielberger&rsquos questionnaire. After an initial screening of 90 students, 60 person who had high level of anxiety were randomly divided into experimental (n=30) and control (n=30) groups. The experimental group obtained 8 sessions (one session per week) problem solving training and two months later, the test repeated. The control group only followed-up without any intervention. Data were analyzed using chi-square and t-test in SPSS (v. 19).

Results: The results showed that problem solving training significantly decreased state anxiety (p<0.001), but did not decreased the trait anxiety.

Conclusion: In general, problem solving training course has positive effect on decreasing the anxiety in operating room students. Therefore this training course is suggested for students as a low-cost and simple method.