The Journal of Medical Education and Development

Introduction: Enabling subspecialty graduates to provide optimized services necessary for disease prevention and health promotion, are important. The aim of this study was to determine the neonatal subspecialty graduates ‘perceived experiences of developmental care in the field.

Methods: This qualitative study was carried out on the graduates of neonatal subspecialty in Tehran University of Medical Sciences  . The data was gathered through semi-structured interviews. After written consents, the interviews were recorded and transcribed. Data was analyzed according to inductive approach of content analysis. The strategies for validation of results  included continuous observations in the field, and supervision and review of the analysis process by the research team.

Result: The main identified themes were ”inadequacy of graduates knowledge”, “attitudes and skills on developmental care”, “lack of educational programs in their course” and “non-responsive health system”.

Conclusion: Challenges of developmental care in the health system should be addressed in the future national health policies.