Increasing recruitment of quality students to obstetrics and gynecology: impact of a structured clerkship.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the satisfaction of the third-year medical students with their basic third-year obstetrics and gynecology rotation before and after a concerted effort was made to improve the rotation with prompt feedback and problem-based case learning.


METHODS
At the end of each rotation, third-year medical students were asked to anonymously fill out an "in-house" course evaluation. A 1-5 rating scale to evaluate quality of teaching, instructor's commitment and enthusiasm, and enhancement of professional development was used. Scores were compared over 4 years, and a Wilcoxon rank sum analysis was performed to determine significance. Evaluations were compared for 1999 and 2000, which were the 2 years before the initiation of the structured rotation, with 2001 and 2002, the first 2 years of the new approach's implementation.


RESULTS
Sixty third-year students were evaluated. The students noted that the quality of teaching improved (P <.002), the instructors' commitment and enthusiasm increased (P <.001), instructors enhanced the student's professional development (P <.001), and students perceived faculty as positive role models (P <.001). It is noteworthy that between the years 1999 and 2000, the number of students interested in obstetrics and gynecology was 3 and 4, respectively, whereas in 2001 and 2002, the first 2 years after implementation of the new process, 6 and 7 students, respectively, were interested in this field.


CONCLUSIONS
Students' satisfaction with their third-year clerkship improved with a structured program and increased faculty involvement.


METHODS
II-2
Dunn
Terry S
TS
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Denver Health Medical Center and University of Colorado Health Science Center, 777 Bannock Street, M/C 0660, Denver, CO 80204, USA. tdunn@dhha.org
Wolf
Doug
D
Beuler
Julie
J
Coddington
Charles C
CC
D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000592:standards*; D003625:Data Collection; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D005260:Female; D006176:Gynecology / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009774:Obstetrics / Q000193:education*; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011336:Probability; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D013337:Students, Medical