Relationship between clinical experiences and internal medicine clerkship performance.
OBJECTIVE
This study was conducted to assess the associations between several clerkship process measures and students' clinical and examination performance in an internal medicine clerkship.


METHODS
We collected data from the internal medicine clerkship at one institution over a 3-year period (classes of 2010-2012; n = 507) and conducted correlation and multiple regression analyses. We examined the associations between clerkship process measures (student-reported number of patients evaluated, percentage of core problems encountered, total number of core problems encountered, total number of clinics attended) and four clerkship outcomes (clinical points [a weighted summation of a student's clinical grade recommendations], ambulatory clinical points [the out-patient portion of clinical points], examination points [a weighted summation of scores on three clerkship examinations], and National Board of Medical Examiners examination score).


RESULTS
After controlling for pre-clerkship ability and gender, percentage of core problems was significantly associated with ambulatory clinical points (b = 3.84, total model R(2) = 0.14). Further, number of patients evaluated was significantly associated with clinical points (b = 0.19, total model R(2) = 0.22), but only for students who undertook first-quarter clerkships, who reported higher numbers of patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Notwithstanding a few positive (but small) associations, the results from this study suggest that clinical exposure is, at best, weakly associated with internal medicine clerkship performance.
Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), Bethesda, MD 20814, USA. ting.dong@usuhs.mi
Ting
T
Dong
Anthony R
AR
Artino
Steven J
SJ
Durning
Gerald D
GD
Denton
D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D003479:Curriculum; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D008297:Male; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*