One-on-one long-term tutorials in general practitioners' practices - a successful new teaching concept in primary care medicine.
To improve teaching in practical and communicative skills and knowledge in day-to-day medical practice, in 1997 we introduced one-on-one tutorials in general practitioners' offices as a mandatory part of medical students' academic education. Students participate actively half a day per week in their 3rd and 4th academic years (out of 6) in the office or clinic of a trained personal tutor. We recruited 270 general practitioners in town or from surrounding rural areas for this purpose. 85% of students choose general practitioners as their tutors and 15 % tutors in hospitals. To test whether the tutorials' aims were achieved, in 2005 we performed a detailed questionnaire evaluation after seven years' experience of one-on-one tutorials. All 236 students involved were asked to participate. The response rate was almost complete (98%). 233 anonymous questionnaires were analysed. Students reported improvement in knowledge, social and communicative skills and personal motivation. The overall rating of the one-on-one tutorials obtained 5.3 on a 6 point scale and achieved the top ranking among all university medical faculty classes. In-practice long-term one-on-one medical student-general practitioner tutorials can be recommended for implementation.
Isler
Ruedi
R
Institute of Primary Care, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland. ruedi.isler@unibas.ch
Romerio
Silvana
S
Halter
Ursina
U
Heiniger
Simon
S
Persike
Malte
M
Röers
Bodo
B
Martina
Benedict
B
Tschudi
Peter
P
Bally
Klaus
K
D003142:Communication; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D009042:Motivation; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010821:Physicians, Family; D011320:Primary Health Care; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013557:Switzerland; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods