Designing a Comprehensive Model for Evaluating the Performance of Clinical Faculty Members

Document Type : Qualitative Research

Authors
Z. Karimi 1
H.R. Arasteh 1
R. Ghaffari 2
H. Abbasian 1
B. Abdollahi 1
1 Department of Educational Administration, Faculty of Management, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
2 Medical Education Research Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran
10.58209/hehp.12.2.331
Abstract
Aims: One of the ways to improve the quality of education is to create a suitable and efficient mechanism to evaluate the performance of clinical academic faculty members; Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of designing a comprehensive model for evaluating the performance of clinical academic faculty members of schools of medical sciences.

Participants & Methods: The current study was a qualitative research employing descriptive-exploratory method and carried out in Tabriz in 2023. The used components were identified based on document review and semi-structured interview tools. In order to review the documents and analyze the interviews, three levels of open, central and selective coding were used. In order to comprehensively identify the main components and sub-components of the comprehensive performance evaluation model, in addition to reviewing the studies conducted in this field, a semi-structured interview was conducted with 15 experts in the field.

Findings: 8 main themes and 28 sub-themes were identified. Professional commitment, professional development, professional skills, research skills component, personality characteristics component, teaching and educational activities, consulting services and social-political activities were the main themes.

Conclusion: The performance evaluation of clinical academic faculty members is an effective process to identify strengths and weaknesses and is the basis for the participation of academic faculty members to improve quality in university development planning.

Keywords

Subjects

Introduction
Today, higher education institutions are facing pressures such as increasing global competition, struggle for survival and longevity, increasing costs, being accountable for providing high-quality services to beneficiaries, and the speed of technological changes. It is important to evaluate the expertise and competencies of faculty members in order to know the degree of success in educational, research, and clinical activities and to be responsive to the expectations of the stakeholders in view of the changes in the competitive world [1]. Based on this, the performance evaluation of clinical faculty members has been defined as an official measure for universities of medical sciences. This performance evaluation has led to a judgment about the performance of medical schools. Therefore, the performance evaluation system of clinical faculty members is related to different elements and processes that produce performance evaluation data and provide useful performance in the university education system by using its results [2].
Performance evaluation is a process that includes feedback from each identified and evaluated result that determines employee performance and provides job guidance and a context for developing work performance for the employee in order to achieve organizational goals [3].
Having an accurate evaluation model for faculty members can be a guide for implementing development goals and increasing quality and improving university performance. Each faculty member follows a diverse set of activities that include educational, research, and therapeutic activities in the field of medical sciences. The field in which a clinical faculty member spends most of his time, apart from the field of teaching and research, is the field of treating patients in the office or educational clinics and operating rooms.
In general, the indicators used for performance evaluation should be such that they increase the accuracy, accuracy and effectiveness of the evaluation process; It means that these indicators can be trusted and are not based on a specific person or method, can recognize the differences between the members and separate them from each other, and can be accepted and believed by the people under evaluation.
Although the evaluation system of faculty members has existed and is implemented in universities for a long time, but various researches show that only a few universities have been able to manage it comprehensively and systematically. Often, each university has its own evaluation system based on previous records and expectations from academic staff members, which sometimes does not allow comparing academic staff members of different universities with each other [4].
Mirzakhani et al. identified three main components and twelve indicators. They ranked indicators in the following order: The dimension of consulting services including the competence components of foreign relations, intercultural, creativity and innovation and technology; the research dimension including communication competence, new technology, innovation and creativity and entrepreneurship and cognitive competence and the education dimension including teaching quality, spiritual, psychological and managerial competence were identified and ranked as sub-components. The fit rate of the model was estimated at 0.62, which shows the strong fittness of the model of performance evaluation standards of faculty members [5].
The data obtained from the interview analysis of the study of Raoufi Kelachayeh et al. showed 6 main themes and 21 sub-themes. The main subject includes research activities (3 subjects), educational activities (3 subjects), executive services (2 subjects), growth (4 sub-subjects), professional ethics (3 subjects) and personal ethics (6 subjects). There was a deep understanding of academic faculty members' performance criteria in 6 main topics and 21 sub-topics [6].
Karimi et al. by analyzing the content of the interviews, show four components of professional knowledge, professional skills, and professional ethics and personality traits were identified to evaluate the performance of Farhangian University professors. Also, the findings of the confirmatory factor analysis shows that all the items of professional knowledge, professional skills, professional ethics and personality traits, except for the item of power of criticism and analysis in professional knowledge and frankness in speech and behavior in personality traits, explained the variance of the identified component scores well [7].
Abed et al. conclude that the existing criteria for evaluating the performance of academic faculty members are not sufficient and have shortcomings; In this way, in the existing evaluation system, only the demands and expectations of the educational system are taken into account, and the opinions of professors and students are not taken into account [8].
Abbaspour et al. realize that the quality of faculty members' performance as the main variable of the research is influenced by various factors. The structure of the research model consists of 9 causal components, 8 mediating or intervening components, 17 strategic components, 9 contextual components, and 10 components as a result of realizing the quality of academic staff performance. Therefore, improving the quality of faculty members' performance requires adopting a systematic approach to the factors affecting academic quality [9].
Shafiee & Sobhani conducted a study with a mixed research approach and multi-level analysis. The results of the empirical analysis show that the research performance in different faculties is statistically significantly different and the intra-unit correlation value of 0.8 confirms the hierarchical structure of the statistical data and makes it necessary to use the multi-level modeling method. The findings from the interviews have shown that providing a single research performance evaluation system for university faculty members, regardless of the nature of the disciplines, paying little attention to global experiences in the field of performance evaluation, and without considering a suitable motivational system, leads to the research behavior of the members. Academic faculty has turned towards quantitative research, weak innovation in research without regard to social responsibility, so that according to academic faculty members, the university does not have a proper research performance evaluation system [10].
The research instrument of Khadivi & Alahverdi Khan Vaziri inspired by the major and minor components was developed in the form of Likert scale questionnaire with 80 questions. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by face validity, and the reliability of the questionnaire was calculated 95% through the use of Cronbach’s Alpha. The results of the factor analysis showed that the seven components of professional commitment, research activities, professional development, teaching and training activities, consulting, administrative and scientific services, and political and social activities of the model were confirmed [11].
Sumande & Ruiz determined the clinical performance of staff nurses in Level III private hospitals. Determination of the clinical competency measured using the questionnaire checklist adopted from the nursing core competency standards. Results indicated that the overall clinical performance of staff nurses in the Beginning Nurses’ Role in Client Care, Leadership and Management, and Research are competent based on the evaluation of respondents. Staff nurses’ performance, according to profile divulges no significant difference in client care, leadership, and management, while a significant difference is found in research when the highest educational attainment and location of hospital affiliation are considered. Evaluation of those with master's degree is significantly higher than those with bachelor's degree and with master's units. In terms of the current position, the findings disclosed a significant difference in beginning nurses’ roles in leadership and management. The correlation of client care, leadership, and management, and research revealed a directly proportional relationship [12].
Yousif & Shaout reviewed the literatures in the first phase in order to determine and define the suitable quantitative and qualitative criteria and then design and exploit pairwise comparison and evaluation forms through a survey to get experts opinions/preference on the evaluation criteria that are used to measure the universities and academic staff performance. This paper presents a fuzzy logic computational model based on this survey to measure and classify the performance of Sudanese universities and academic staff, which includes computation of criteria weights and overall evaluation of Sudanese universities and academic staff using AHP and TOPSIS techniques [13].
Arnautu & Panc conducted an interdisciplinary study situated in between the concern for the quality of the education process and efficient human resources management. These two needs (quality in education and efficiency in the management of human resources) can be addressed through the introduction of a system of performance appraisal for faculty members. The purpose of the present study is to create a valid and objective tool of evaluating and appraising faculty members [14].
Stoklasa et al. drew the evaluation model of faculty members of Palacky University in the Czech Republic in two dimensions of activities, which are pedagogic activities and research and development activities. The evaluation indicators of pedagogic activities include teaching, student guidance, and work related to the development of study areas. Also, the evaluation indicators in research and development activities are publishing articles in prestigious and important journals, books, patent registrations, etc., project and plan management, and membership in the editorial board [15].
Considering the importance of evaluating the performance of clinical academic faculty members as an important strategy to improve the quality of medical education and treatment and that effective and efficient evaluation should include effective feedback and simply inform the relevant academic faculty member and vice-chancellor of the performance evaluation results, and most of the mentioned studies have rarely examined the missions and missions of clinical faculty members in a comprehensive and systematic manner, and with respect to the fact that such evaluations provide comprehensive, clear and specific information about the factors affecting the quality of clinical faculty members' performance for We will not provide.
The current research is trying to provide a comprehensive model for evaluating the performance of clinical academic faculty members, individual goals and organizational goals, individual performance indicators and organizational performance indicators to match and align in it and thus create more coherence and integration between the performances of different levels, That the result will be to improve the overall effectiveness of the system. In this regard, by reviewing the literature and taking advantage of the opinions of experts, a proposed model is formed, and after that, the mentioned model is used in the faculties of medical sciences, so that its feasibility is also discussed and checked. Therefore, the current research has been conducted with the aim of value indicators of the performance of clinical scientific components based on the organization's performance evaluation model.

Participants and Methods
The current study is applied research carried out in Tabriz University of medical sciences in 2023. Also, in terms of the nature of the research, it is classified as qualitative research. In the qualitative part, the model has been presented, and in the quantitative part, its implementation in the faculties of medical sciences has been discussed. Qualitative tools, including exploratory interviews, have been used to identify performance evaluation indicators of faculty members.
The statistical population of this research was academic experts in the field of evaluating the performance of clinical faculty members. Inclusion criteria for selecting people for interview, included specialized knowledge and experience in the field of performance evaluation, awareness of the macro policies of the education and evaluation system, research records, authorship, translation, etc. in the field of performance evaluation, having responsibility in the university, high experience of teaching in science schools medical and their interest in participating in the research. People who did not show interest in continuing the interview were excluded from the study. In the current research, 15 people from this group of participants were selected using snowball sampling method and they were interviewed. Before the start of each interview, a summary of the research plan, the results of the research background, along with the research objectives and questions for study and initial preparation were sent to the interviewees via email.
At the beginning of each interview session, the tasks performed were briefly explained. Then, the interview questions were asked. Snowball sampling method was used to conduct in-depth interviews. In this method, an initial group is selected for interview, and then the next groups are introduced by the same group, and sampling continues until the research reaches theoretical saturation and data sufficiency; Therefore, after each interview, the interview file was listened to and notes were taken. In the next stage, the coding method was implemented. After analyzing the data collected during two stages of open and central coding, the primary conceptual model of the research was presented.
To determine content and form validity, all identified components were examined and judged by experts and their ability to be included in the final evaluation tool was determined. For this purpose, the identified components were included in the questionnaire of the panel of experts, in which each component was judged based on the four criteria of necessity, relevance, clarity and measurability and in a spectrum of four options.
According to statistical principles, first, the average necessity score was examined based on the content validity ratio (CVR) to determine whether the most correct content (necessity of the question) was selected or not. In order to determine the content validity of the questionnaire, the experts were requested to answer each of the questions in the form of "it is necessary", "it is not necessary but it is useful" and "it is not necessary". The answers were calculated based on the CVR formula and adapted to the Laushe table, and numbers higher than 0.5 were accepted.
After determining and calculating the CVR, the content validity index (CVI) of Waltz and Basel was examined. For this purpose, specialists were asked to comment on each of the following three criteria based on a four-part Likert scale (unrelated, somewhat related, related, and completely related). Acceptance of items was higher than 0.7.

Findings
All 15 interviewees had PhD degrees and they were academicians (Table 1).

Table 1. Demographic information of the interviewees in the qualitative section


Identifying the symptoms and performance evaluation components of the clinical faculty members of the faculties of medical sciences
The data obtained from the interview and analysis showed that there was 8 main themes and 28 sub-themes. Professional commitment with 5 themes (functionality, social ethics, altruism, action initiative and goodwill); Professional development with 3 contents (topical knowledge, educational knowledge, general knowledge); Professional skills with 4 topics (professional leadership, managerial skills, compiling-implementing and evaluating the organization's goals and realizing the goals and plans of human resources management); Research skills component with 4 topics (expertise, new technology, value and communication); Personality characteristics component with 4 themes (agreeable, patient, openness and sociability); Teaching and educational activities with 4 subjects (specialization, teaching quality, classroom management and clinical area); Consulting services with 3 contents (innovation and creativity, foreign relations and technology) and social-political activities were identified as a single category (Table 2).

Table 2. Main themes and sub-themes extracted from the interviews


1- Professional commitment
The findings of the research showed that one of the criteria for evaluating the performance of clinical faculty of the university was professional commitment based on duty, social ethics, altruism, action initiative and goodwill. Some of the sample sentences of the interviewees that represent the content of the topics are as follows:
Participant 1 believed that “Adherence of the professor to the principles, rules and regulations is very important, and this should be given basic attention in the evaluation of the professors”.
While, participant 8 expressed that “In my opinion, trust, discipline, accuracy and duty are among the things that a university professor must have, and duty and professional ethics are considered performance evaluation indicators”.
Participant 4 said that “Academic faculty members should be well-dressed in appearance and dress so that students and staff can identify with them and also adhere to Islamic-national values and norms”.
Participant 11 mentioned that “A professor must be committed to the quality of the educational system, respect the rights of students and colleagues, have a cooperative spirit, and be a pioneer in sharing knowledge”.
2- Professional development
Another finding was professional development with 3 contents (topical knowledge, educational knowledge, general knowledge) which was extracted from the interview. For example, participant 8 expressed that “What is considered important in evaluating the performance of professors is having up-to-date knowledge in his specialty, does he have the necessary scientific and specialized knowledge and information in this field that he is teaching or not”?
Participant 6 mentioned that “By gaining more experience, he has complete mastery over the subject and content of the courses and can analyze and review the upper documents and use them in the content of the teaching courses”.
In addition, participant 13 believed that “It is very important that the professor is familiar with up-to-date educational resources and content and conveys them to students and colleagues”.
Participant 3 said “In my opinion, professional development and its increasing promotion are very important in the teaching profession, and it should be evaluated how much the professors work for their professional development and growth”.
3- Professional skills
Professional skills with 4 themes (professional leadership, managerial skills, organization-implementation and evaluation of organization goals and realization of human resources management goals and plans) were extracted from the interviews.
Participant 7 expressed “In my opinion, the professor should strengthen his skills and acquire new skills. Communication and ethical skills are very important in evaluating the teacher's performance”.
Participant 12 believed that “The performance of the professor should be such that the students put responsibility, creativity, hope, trust and cooperation at the forefront of their work with the actions and behavior of the professor”.
Participant 5 mentioned that “The professor must always see the students with one eye and provide them with mental health by not discriminating between students and have the ability to understand the motivations of the students so that he can take steps in line with the development of educational and educational goals”.
Participant 10 said “In my opinion, the professor's commitment and sense of responsibility and empathy with the students, as well as understanding and anticipating their needs, are among the things that can be considered in evaluating the professors' performance”.
4- Research skills
The findings indicated that one of the criteria for evaluating the performance of clinical board members is research skills based on specialized research skills, new technology, value and communication. In the following, some of the participants raised the following topics. For example participant 9 presented that “Compiling articles with standard quality and publishing them in prestigious journals, publishing specialized books, participating in conferences as presenters or speakers, and organizing internal and external research exhibitions are considered to be the most important indicators for evaluating professors' performance”.
Participant 6, on the other hand, expressed that “In my opinion, a professor should have the ability to carry out national and international research projects and be able to cooperate with other groups in the university in the field of research projects”.
Participant 2 believed that “The professor should be able to link and connect the educational and research activities of the university with the social, economic and cultural needs and conditions”.
Participant 14 expressed that “Regarding the research method, the professor should update his knowledge and use new research technologies, research software, and problem-solving techniques, which in my opinion are important criteria for evaluating professors' performance”.
5- Teaching and educational activities
Teaching and educational activities with 4 sub-topics were among the main topics. The following are examples of the points mentioned by the participants.
Participant 7, for instance, mentioned that “In evaluating the teacher's educational activities, items such as access to the teacher outside the classroom, presentation of the lesson plan, mastery of the course content, commitment to the student's time, and continuous evaluation of the students should be taken into consideration”.
Participant 3 believed “A teacher must have the spirit of learning and teaching, love teaching and be able to overcome problems with management, because the sense of belonging and satisfaction from work can affect the teacher's performance”.
Participant 7 mentioned that “The professor’s desire for continuous learning, updating knowledge and class materials in each semester, supporting and giving appropriate feedback to students in order to improve and strengthen interaction and group work is important in evaluation”.
Participant 9 said that “Familiarity with educational laws and regulations as well as new models and methods of teaching and the ability to plan based on the strategies and expectations of the comprehensive educational system are among the things that can show the strong performance of a professor”.
6- Consulting services
Consulting services with 3 sub-themes (innovation and creativity, external relations and technology) were among the results extracted from the interviews, and the opinions of some participants are reported below:
Participant 11 expressed “The professor must have a creative spirit and be innovative in the way of teaching and classroom management, and attend the classroom and university with interest, and most importantly, be open to criticism and manage the class with the participation of students”.
Participant 12 said that “The professor should be active in international forums by updating his knowledge and expertise and communication and perception skills, and in general, he should help the scientific and cultural promotion of the Islamic-Iranian model”.
Participant 2 believed that “In my opinion, it is important that the professor can have scientific cooperation with different groups and tastes and provide the ability of networking and scientific and cultural competitions among students”.
Participant 10 mentioned “He should always participate in faculty members' empowerment courses and knowledge-enhancing workshops so that he can transfer and teach new knowledge and technologies to students”.
7- Personality traits
Personality traits with 4 themes (agreeable, patient, openness and sociability). The participants presented the following content.
Participant 1 said that “Tolerance and patience in professors make them perform successfully and efficiently”.
Participant 5, however mentioned that “The flexibility of the professor is very important because this flexibility provides the opportunity to exchange opinions between professors and students and encourages students to learn new things”.
Participant 4 expressed “In my opinion, open-mindedness and humility of the professor is a criterion, and being honest in evaluating the student and caring about his future is very important, and all these things should be taken into consideration in the evaluation of the faculty members”.
Participant 14 presented that “He should behave normally with students and not impose his opinions on students. Have a good attitude and good manners, and most importantly, feel responsible towards the student”.
8- Social and political activities
Social political activities were also discussed as a single topic. Some of the comments of the participants are given below:
Participant 9 mentioned that “How is his communication and interactions with officials, students and colleagues outside the university? Does it cooperate at all with other institutions and organizations? Or does he only care about teaching?”
Participant 7 said that “Responsibility and cooperation in associations related to the field, joint cooperation and interaction with other colleagues, participation in associations and meetings and performing services for the university are very important in evaluating professors' performance”.
Participant 3 expressed “In my opinion, the professor should be able to present a positive image of the university at the level of public opinion and observe the values and social norms common in the society, and in a way, it can be said to represent the model of the university in the society”.
Participant 11 mentioned that “To comment on various decisions and issues of the society. As elite, it should not be indifferent to the environment of the society”.

Discussion
The higher education system of any society must have competent and capable professors and human resources to perform its mission well so that it can show effective performance in educational and research processes. The effective performance of processes and tasks by professors requires comprehensive evaluations of professors' performance to achieve high competence and abilities as professors and teachers. In this sense, paying attention to the evaluation of performance in this research and creating a platform for the development, guidance and promotion of professors based on the results of these evaluations can be very effective and efficient. Therefore, the aim of the present research was to provide a comprehensive model for evaluating the performance of the clinical faculty members of the faculties of medical sciences. The model for evaluating the performance of clinical faculty members of medical sciences faculties was designed using a qualitative method.
The research findings showed that eight main components of professional commitment, professional development, professional skills, research skills, teaching and educational activities, social and political activities, consulting services and personality traits were identified.
Conscientiousness or conscientiousness is the motivation or internal tendency to perform one's job duties in the organization in the best way possible. Social ethics means willingness to participate and take responsibility in organizational life. The professor should be responsible in responding to students' educational issues as well as social and community issues, especially providing service to the community, and seek to provide ideas and advice and carry out research projects to respond to community issues and problems and to establish a relationship between the university and society [16].
Altruism means helping other members of the organization to solve problems and work tasks. The teacher should have voluntary behaviors with forgiveness and selflessness without complaining in order to help solve the educational problems of the learners. Good intentions or polite behaviors are said to be a person's effort to avoid creating work pressure and stress in relation to others, which create a peaceful environment. In other words, it respects and preserves human dignity. With good manners, kindness, compassion, and humility, the professor does not hesitate to give any help and ideas to solve the problems of students and colleagues. Initiative refers to educational development, research development, organizational development and individual development [17]. Therefore, enthusiasm and interest in continuous learning, lifelong learning and efforts to hold workshops, seminars, symposiums and review chairs, etc., in order to resolve the educational and research uncertainties of students, lead to an increase in the level of knowledge and skill of professors [18].
General knowledge, knowledge of learners and their characteristics, knowledge of the educational environment, society and knowledge are educational goals and values. Subject knowledge is the knowledge that is supposed to be taught. This knowledge includes the knowledge of facts, concepts, theories and procedures in a subject that organizes and relates ideas and theories [19].
The evaluation of professors' professional skills includes the evaluation of professional leadership skills, management skills, and the formulation and implementation of university program goals. Professional leadership refers to the power of influence and direction. Management skills also refer to the ability to manage the class and the ability and verbal proficiency to convey the teacher's educational materials. Professional leadership or learning leadership plays an important role in professional development and the quality of education [20]. Educational leaders can create a culture and atmosphere of learning, opportunities to attend workshops and conferences. Also, it helps the growth, progress, professional development and innovation of teachers [21]. The professional leadership of professors refers to the extent of their power of influence and direction. The professor has an inspiring role and should be able to penetrate the hearts and minds of his students by guiding and guiding them, so that he can be a good role model for them in the future. Management skills refer to class management and the teacher's verbal mastery. Classroom management includes very precise and sensitive teaching methods and techniques that help learners to be successful in learning activities and also help professors to use their maximum power in facilitating teaching conditions and making learners' learning more effective [22]. Verbal fluency refers to the ability to present and convey content fluently and smoothly, not repeating inappropriate words, organization and correct use of words.
In relation to research skills, it can be said that Calcagnini et al. [23] have stated that research is an academic activity and when it is published in scientific journals, it leads to the publication and expansion of knowledge. In general, it can be said that research is classified under tacit knowledge. The most tangible academic research production is the works of faculty members, including articles, books, etc. Research skills including the ability to analyze issues and needs of society and research problems, use of new research technologies, recognition and proper search of reliable internal and external scientific sources, recognition and respect for research rules and guidelines, management of the research supervision process, ability and courage; In ideation and theorizing, methodology and skill in research methods, statistical and analytical skills and the production and dissemination of knowledge in the form of writing articles, books; In the specialized field and establishing effective communication with industry and commercialization of science is (marketing and marketing). The results obtained from the research in this section with some of the results of Mohabbat et al. [24], Salimi et al. [25], Zahedi & Bazargan [17], Hyatt & Williams [26], Ragan et al. [27], is consistent. Therefore, a university professor should have research skills in order to carry out collaborative research, research projects, scientific-research articles and membership in the editorial boards of magazines and as a guide for student thesis.
The quality of teaching, classroom management in the clinical field was recognized as one of the components of the performance evaluation of faculty members. Teaching and educational activities including things such as recognition and assessment of the situation in the use of new methods and techniques and multiple models of education, creating an active and attractive educational environment and involving students, preparing the lesson plan and educational program, familiarizing with the specialized tools of the field and application. They were suitable in educational environments, managing the learning environment and educational challenges, managing the evaluation process and providing appropriate feedback to the learners, the ability to choose and organize the content and master it, and the meaningful application of knowledge. Because the most important role of professors is to transfer course materials and they should have the ability to lead the class considering that each learner has special conditions for learning and in fact, the professor should be able to use different teaching methods. Also, verbal intelligence is one of the very important tools in conveying concepts and course materials, which the professor must also have this feature. Verbal skill is one of the very important social skills, which also means that the professor can convey his explanations to the student using the correct terms, examples, and proper and correct organization of his opinions. The results obtained from the research in this section with some of the results of Mohabbat et al. [24], Salimi et al. [25], Hyatt & Williams [26], Ragan et al. [27], Myers & Dyer [28], Wolfe & Poon [29] is consistent.
Consulting services were identified with 3 sub-themes of innovation and creativity, foreign relations and technology. Innovation and information technology can be seen as a powerful tool to improve the quality and efficiency of education. The extensive development and growth of technology has led to the creation of a new form of creative, active and inclusive learning and interactive environments inside and outside the university. In fact, information technology creates a framework and structure so that the quality of education is improved and students and learners can use technology to access a wide range of learning resources, increase their learning motivation and use different forms of learning [30].
Personality traits are a set of organized and dynamic characteristics and attributes of a person that differentiates him from others and affects his cognition, motivation and behavior [31]. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to personality traits in order to maintain and improve the health and safety of the individual, the society, and maintain human relationships. The personality traits of agreeableness, sociability, openness and patience are very important for faculty members in creating interaction with students. Agreeableness trait refers to interpersonal tendencies, people with this trait basically trust, benevolent, companionable, trustworthy, compassionate, modest, humble, kind, well-mannered, cooperative and forgiving. Extroverted or sociable people tend to establish warm and intimate communication and express positive emotions. These people are often sociable, loving, talkative, optimistic, energetic, and ambitious. People with openness personality are usually curious, intellectual, imaginative, creative, innovative and flexible and try to maintain their political and social attitudes. In other words, people with an open personality are curious about the growth and development of their inner experiences and the world around them, and their lives are full of experience. One of the characteristics that a university professor must have is patience and tolerance in the face of adversity that may exist over a period of time. Patience becomes a professional value. The results obtained from the research in this section with another part of Mohabbat et al. [24] is consistent.
In relation to the socio-political activities of academic faculty members, it should be said that the university should strengthen its academic faculty so that they can have the necessary abilities and skills to deal with society's problems and strive to solve them. University professors should create a balance between their work and life and promote group and team work among students. Professors should have the necessary sensitivity to preserve the environment, teach human and social values, and develop environmental policies and professional ethics.
Therefore, performance evaluation will regain its original meaning when the university's governing policy deems it important and provides financial, time and human resources for evaluation. Otherwise, performance evaluation will turn into a superficial matter and solving the task.
From the point of view of the professors participating in this research, the most important factor in increasing the evaluation of performance, teaching and educational activities, it is necessary for the professors to increase and update their knowledge by participating in educational workshops, seminars and studying references.
In line with the mentioned contents in this research, suggestions are provided for future researchers:
It is suggested to carry out the research topic in other universities and compare the similarity and difference coefficients obtained from the model with the current research and in line with the design of the proposed model, in the field of designing a model to evaluate the capabilities of the faculty members.
It should also be done to prioritize the elements of the model in order to evaluate the performance of academic faculty members, to determine the degree of importance of existing criteria and indicators, and to compare the indicators of the performance evaluation model of clinical and non-clinical academic faculty members.
The time-consuming nature of data collection in the qualitative part and the time limit faced by the researcher were among the limitations under the researcher's control, which were partially overcome by the researcher's efforts.

Conclusion
Teaching variables and educational activities, research skills, consulting services and professional skills are considered as the most important components of performance evaluation of clinical faculty members of medical sciences faculties.

Acknowledgments: The authors would like to acknowledge all the participants involved in the study.
Ethical Permissions: Consent was obtained from the participants and their confidentiality was ensured.
Conflicts of Interests: There are no conflicts of interests.
Authors’ Contribution: Karimi Z (First Author), Introduction Writer/Original Researcher/Discussion Writer (30%); Arasteh HR (Second Author), Methodologist (17.5%); Ghaffari R (Third Author), Assistant Researcher/Statistical Analyst (17.5%); Abbasian H (Fourth Author), Introduction Writer/Methodologist/Discussion Writer (17.5%); Abdollahi B (Fifth Author), Discussion Writer (17.5%)
Funding/Support: This research did not receive any financial support.
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Health Education and Health Promotion
Volume 12, Issue 2
Spring 2024
Pages 331-340