title: Subspecialty exposure in a psychiatry clerkship does not improve student performance in the subject examination.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The authors compared the NBME subject examination scores and subspecialty profiles of 3rd-year medical students who were assigned to psychiatry subspecialties during their clerkship with those who were not.
  
  
  METHODS
  The authors collated and analyzed the shelf examination scores, the clinical grades, and the child psychiatry and emergency psychiatry shelf profiles of 361 junior medical students in two medical schools during their psychiatry clerkship.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were no significant differences on these parameters between the students assigned to subspecialty sites and those who were not.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study, like some similar previous studies in other clerkships, calls attention to the lack of measurable academic benefit of fragmenting and compartmentalizing the psychiatry clerkship experience for 3rd-year medical students.
authors: Dept. of Psychiatry, Einstein Healthcare Network, Philadelphia PA, USA. retamerc@einstein.edu
authors: Carolina
authors: C
authors: Retamero
authors: Dilip
authors: D
authors: Ramchandani
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002982:Clinical Clerkship / Q000379:methods*; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003479:Curriculum; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D011570:Psychiatry / Q000193:education*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*