title: STFM's National Clerkship Curriculum: CERA reveals impact, clerkship director needs.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Consistency is needed in family medicine clerkships nationwide. The Society of Teachers of Family Medicine's (STFM) National Clerkship Curriculum (NCC) and supporting NCC website have been developed to address this need. A survey was used to measure these tools' effect and guide future improvements.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Council of Academic Family Medicine's (CAFM) Educational Research Alliance (CERA) 2012 survey of clerkship directors (CD) was used to answer two research questions: (1) To what extent are clerkships teaching the minimum core curriculum? and (2) What resources do clerkship directors identify as important in their role?
  
  
  RESULTS
  The survey response rate was 66% (88/134). Ninety-two percent of these CDs are aware of the NCC, 74% report having visited the NCC website, and 71% plan to visit it more than once per year in the future. A total of 21.6% strongly agree that their clerkship content matches the NCC. CDs rate the quality of materials on the website as high and place greatest value on materials that can be downloaded and adapted to their clerkships.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  STFM's NCC website and materials are familiar to CDs although only one in five state their clerkship curriculum matches the NCC minimum core curriculum. The NCC editorial board needs to better understand why so few teach curriculum that closely matches the minimum core. Continued outreach to CDs can answer this question and improve our ability to support CDs as they incorporate the NCC into family medicine clerkships.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, University of Utah.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cochella
authors.forename: Beat D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Steiner
authors.forename: C Randall
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Clinch
authors.forename: Vince
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: WinklerPrins
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards*; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male