title: Medical students' experiences of rectal examination and occult blood test.
abstract: The experiences of seventy-six final-year medical students with chemical faecal occult blood tests (FOBT) and rectal examination were assessed using a simple questionnaire. About one third of the students had no experience at all. Among the students familiar with the tests one third had received their experience exclusively outside the teaching environment. The findings may partly explain why physicians seem to often omit rectal examinations and FOBT even when indicated in the diagnostic process.
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum; D004501:Education, Medical; D006801:Humans; D009780:Occult Blood; D012002:Rectal Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*