Effect of electronic versus print format and different reading resources on knowledge acquisition in the third-year medicine clerkship.
BACKGROUND
Many medical students have access to electronic and print resources. It is not known if the format or the choice of resources effects knowledge acquisition over an entire clerkship.


OBJECTIVE
To determine if the format (electronic or print) or choice of reading materials is associated with knowledge acquisition during the 3-year internal medicine clerkship.


METHODS
This was a prospective cohort study. During the last week of the clerkship, students took the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) exam and completed a survey ranking the reading materials used.


RESULTS
One hundred and fourteen 3rd-year internal medicine clerkship students participated. The most commonly reported resources were UpToDate (99%), a review or question book (93%), and Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (82%). Multivariate analysis showed a significant beneficial effect of any use of Harrison's (linear regression, p < .04, absolute difference 3 points, SD = 1.4) on NBME score. The format of the most important resource-electronic (61%) or print (39%)-did not predict the NBME score, p > .80.


CONCLUSIONS
The format (electronic or print) of resources did not appear to effect NBME score in the medicine clerkship. A secondary analysis showed the use of Harrison's textbook was associated with improved knowledge acquisition.
DeZee
Kent J
KJ
Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA. kent.dezee@us.army.mil
Durning
Steven
S
Denton
G Dodd
GD
D000328:Adult; D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval / Q000379:methods*; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011932:Reading; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States