title: Selecting the patients for morning report sessions: case-based vs. conventional method.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  One of the most important issues in morning report sessions is the number of patients. The aim of this study was to investigate and compare the number of cases reported in the morning report sessions in terms of case-based and conventional methods from the perspective of pediatric residents of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences.
  
  
  METHODS
  The present study was conducted on 24 pediatric residents of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2014-2015. In this survey, the residents replied to a 20-question researcher-made questionnaire that had been designed to measure the views of residents regarding the number of patients in the morning report sessions using case-based and conventional methods. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by experts' views and its reliability by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficients. Data were analyzed by t-test analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age of the residents was 30.852 ± 2.506, and 66.6% of them were female. The results showed that there was no significant relationship among the variables of academic year, gender, and residents' perspective to choosing the number of patients in the morning report sessions (P > 0.05). T-test analysis showed a significant relationship among the average scores of residents in the selection of the case-based method in comparison to the conventional method (P < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From the perspective of residents, the case-based morning report was preferred compared to the conventional method. This method makes residents pay more attention to the details of patients' issues and therefore helps them to better plan how to address patient problems and improve their differential diagnosis skills.
authors.affiliation: Ph.D. Student of Higher Education Development Planning, Mazandaran University, Mazandaran, Iran.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rabiei
authors.affiliation: Student Research Committee, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Masumeh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Saeidi
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Ali
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Kiani
authors.affiliation: Department of Educational Sciences, Hakim Sabzevari University, Sabzevar, Iran.
authors.forename: Sakineh Mohebi
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Amin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamid
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ahanchian
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Seyed Ali
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Jafari
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
authors.forename: Hamidreza
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kianifar
keywords: case-based method; conventional method; morning report; number of patients