Exploring the educational challenges in emergency medical students: A qualitative study

INTRODUCTION: Emergency medical services (EMS) are provided in the difficult and unpredictable conditions of prehospital settings. Therefore, EMS students need to receive quality education to acquire considerable knowledge and skills. This qualitative study aimed to explore the educational challenges in medical emergency students. METHODS: This qualitative study was carried out in 2019 using qualitative content analysis. Participants were fourteen undergraduate EMS students purposively recruited from Hamadan University of Medical Sciences, Hamadan, Iran. Data collection was done through semi-structured interviews and continued up to data saturation. Data were analyzed using the conventional content analysis approach explained by Graneheim and Lundman. RESULTS: The four main categories of the challenges of EMS education were shortcomings of the clinical education environment, lack of qualified EMS instructors, deficit of the curriculum, and theory-practice gap. CONCLUSION: During their university education, EMS students face different challenges. For effective training, more coordination is needed among the emergency medical board, faculty members and EMS managers. It is also recommended that the curriculum should be revised.