Dataset Information

Fourth-Year Medical School Course Load and Success as a Medical Intern.

ABSTRACT:

Background?

The fourth year of medical school has come under recent scrutiny for its lack of structure, cost- and time-effectiveness, and quality of education it provides. Some have advocated for increasing clinical burden in the fourth year, while others have suggested it be abolished.

Objective?

To assess the relationship between fourth-year course load and success during internship.

Methods?

We reviewed transcripts of 78 internal medicine interns from 2011-2013 and compared the number of intensive courses (defined as subinternships, intensive care, surgical clerkships, and emergency medicine rotations) with multi-source performance evaluations from the internship. We assessed relative risk (RR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of achieving excellent scores according to the number of intensive courses taken, using generalized estimating equations, adjusting for demographics, US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 board scores, and other measures of medical school performance.

Results?

For each additional intensive course taken, the RR of obtaining an excellent score per intensive course was 1.05 (95% CI 1.03-1.07, P?P?=?.03). An association of intensive course work with increased risk of excellent performance was seen across multiple clinical competencies, including medical knowledge (RR 1.08, 95% CI 1.04-1.11); patient care (RR 1.07, 95% CI 1.04-1.10); and practice-based learning (RR 1.05, 95% CI 1.03-1.09).

Conclusions?

For this single institution's cohort of medical interns, increased exposure to intensive course work during the fourth year of medical school was associated with better clinical evaluations during internship.

SUBMITTER: Richards CJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5319629 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Fourth-Year Medical School Course Load and Success as a Medical Intern.

Richards Christopher J CJ Mukamal Kenneth J KJ DeMelo Nikki N Smith C Christopher CC

Journal of graduate medical education 20170201 1

<h4>Background</h4>The fourth year of medical school has come under recent scrutiny for its lack of structure, cost- and time-effectiveness, and quality of education it provides. Some have advocated for increasing clinical burden in the fourth year, while others have suggested it be abolished.<h4>Objective</h4>To assess the relationship between fourth-year course load and success during internship.<h4>Methods</h4>We reviewed transcripts of 78 internal medicine interns from 2011-2013 and compared ...[more]

PMID: 28261395

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Project description:In the model medical curriculum HannibaL at Hannover Medical School (MHH, Hannover, Germany), communication skills in taking case histories and disclosing diagnoses (breaking bad news) are assessed through an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). This is part of the examinations which at the MHH represent the equivalent to the First Part of the Medical Examinations. The second year doctor-patient communication course preparing for these examinations was evaluated during the 2009/10 academic year.Using questionnaires specific to the learning objectives, learning needs were assessed, pre-post comparisons of self-assessed competencies were performed and key teaching methods were evaluated (5-point Likert scales, "5"=fully agree). At T0 (start of the course) 267 students participated (response rate: 93.7%), of which 180 filled out the T1 questionnaire during the last session of the course (67.4%). Within-subject analyses of variance and paired t-tests were conducted.The highest learning needs were found for the "to show how"-items regarding history taking and disclosing diagnoses (M=4.4). The T1-T0 comparisons showed the greatest improvements for history taking ("to know how": mean difference = +1.7, "to show how": +1.8, p<.0001 as with all tests) and the "to know how"-item regarding the disclosure of diagnoses (+1.6), followed by the "to show how"-items on disclosing a diagnosis (+1.4), shared decision making (+1.2), self-assessing one's own strengths/weaknesses (+1.0) and confidently approaching new patients (+0.7). Students with T0 values of 1 or 2 on the respective scales improved on average by 2.2 points across all items, students with the value of 3 by 1.1, and from 4 or 5 by 0.1. Methodically, the use of simulated patients was rated the most helpful (M=4.8, 87% with the scale value 5). This doctor-patient communication course is associated with substantial improvements regarding all key learning objectives. Regarding methods, the deployed simulated patients (2-4 per 10-student-course group in 3 of the 7 course sessions, respectively) were rated the most helpful. The present evaluation calls for both further development of the doctor-patient communication curriculum at the MHH and joint activities across medical schools, which are discussed at the end of the paper.

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Dataset Information

Fourth-Year Medical School Course Load and Success as a Medical Intern.

Background?

Objective?

Methods?

Results?

Conclusions?

Publications

Fourth-Year Medical School Course Load and Success as a Medical Intern.

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