PURPOSE To assess the feasibility of Direct Observation of Clinical Skills (DOCS), a program for formative assessment of students' clinical skills during a medicine clerkship and to determine relationships between DOCS measures and other clinical performance measures. METHOD From August, 2004 through June, 2005, Medicine Clerks assigned to the primary on-campus clinical site were asked to par...

The core psychiatry clerkship, typically held during the third year of medical school, serves as the primary opportunity for medical students to gain exposure to the clinical practice of psychiatry. Multiple studies have evaluated the effect that the clerkship has on students, and a clear body of evidence indicates that the clerkship influences students’ attitudes towards the field of psychiatr...

BACKGROUND It is not clear that teaching specific history taking, physical examination and patient teaching techniques to medical students results in durable behavioural changes. We used a quasi-experimental design that approximated a randomized double blinded trial to examine whether a Participatory Decision-Making (PDM) educational module taught in a clerkship improves performance on a Simula...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to compare the performance of students completing an 8-week versus a 6-week surgery clerkship on an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) and the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) clinical science surgery examination. METHODS One hundred fifteen students from the 8-week clerkship and 99 from the 6-week clerkship were included. Performan...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Evidence suggests that rural experiences can positively influence students' preferences for rural practice. This study examined changes in students' perceptions toward rural primary care following a required rural clerkship. METHODS Third-year students completed pre- and post-clerkship questionnaire items assessing their beliefs about primary care physicians who prac...

Medical students must complete a clerkship program in their fourth year. Individual students have preferences for the clerkships to which they are assigned. However, individual hospitals also have capacities on how many students may be assigned to each clerkship. The problem of scheduling medical students to clerkships is formalized. The problem is then placed in a theoretical framework, and th...

The present study was conducted with a sample of junior medical students at Jefferson Medical College to investigate the factors that influence students' overall satisfaction with the otolaryngology clerkship. The most important factor related to their overall satisfaction in the clerkship was their experience with residents, followed by experience with attending physicians, quality of rounds, ...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES This study's goal was to determine if completing Web cases improved students' performance on clerkship assessments. METHODS We compared scores on preceptor evaluations, National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Subject Exam, and a standardized patient (SP)-based exam using ANCOVA for students choosing to complete assigned cases versus students not completing the ass...

PURPOSE Patient-centered care is one of the most important factors of high-quality medical care. Medical educators have been increasingly interested in education for patient-centered care. This study was conducted to guide such education by assessing the patient-centeredness of medical students in a real patient encounter and a standardized patient encounter on the clinical performance examinat...