| Popis: |
Background: Communication, history-taking, and documentation are critical skills for medical students to master in their training. To improve these skills, we designed, and pilot tested a curriculum to teach a sample of Y4 students these skills and compared the clinical performance of these students with students not receiving the intervention. Methods: We designed a curriculum to teach HPUMP Y4 students clinical skills. We then studied the effectiveness of the curriculum in enhancing the performance of these skills. We randomly assigned intervention and control groups from different societies to limit exposure between groups. We assessed the clinical competency of each group at 3 times: before intervention, after 9 weeks, and after 2 years of intervention.Results: There was no difference at baseline between 2 groups. Immediately following the intervention, the mean score of the intervention group's skills was significantly higher than before the intervention and higher than the control group in each clinical skill. The performance difference between the 2 groups was maintained two years following the intervention. Discussion and conclusions: Communication, history-taking, and documentation are essential skills requiring focused instruction and practice. Following a 9-week curriculum, students’ performance was rated higher by evaluators than their counterparts who learned these skills through standard informal exposure in the clinical setting. The fact that this performance advantage was maintained 2 years following the intervention is a testament to the durability of the intervention and to the value of dedicated training in these key areas at an early point in students’ clinical careers. |
