title: The clinical skills experience of rural immersion medical students and traditional hospital placement students: a student perspective.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recent decades have seen an international trend for the development of undergraduate medical programmes in rural locations. These have been considered educationally equivalent alternatives to traditional hospital-based programmes. A pilot Rural Medical Immersion Programme (RMIP) was launched at the University of Otago.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To examine the clinical skills experience of RMIP students and to compare it to that of fifth-year students based in the traditional, often urban and hospital-based, rotations.
  
  
  METHODS
  An online questionnaire was completed by 23 medical students: six RMIP students and 17 hospital-based students. Students rated their level of experience in a variety of skills and their self-perceived competence for performing these skills after their fifth year. Total experience and confidence was compared using Mann-Whitney U test, as were subsets of skills.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There was no difference found in the total clinical skills experience and confidence between RMIP and traditional students. RMIP students reported greater experience of patient examination and patient education skills; traditional students reported greater experience and confidence in investigation and interpretative skills.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Clinical skills experience of the RMIP students is at least equivalent to that of their peers in the tertiary hospital setting. However, attention may be needed in the development of 'investigative and interpretative skills' for rural immersion students.
authors.affiliation: Faculty Education Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of Otago, PO Box 913, Dunedin 9054, New Zealand. joy.rudland@otago.ac.nz
authors.forename: Joy
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rudland
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tordoff
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.forename: Pat
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Farry
mesh_terms: D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000379:methods; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods; D004522:Educational Status; D006801:Humans; D009520:New Zealand; D010379:Peer Group; D010865:Pilot Projects; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012424:Rural Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012649:Self Concept; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*