Student perceptions of clerkship handbooks

Utilizing Structured Worksheets to Strengthen Resident Teaching on the OB/GYN Clerkship

OBJECTIVE

To determine if structured worksheets can aid resident teaching on the obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN) clerkship.

DESIGN

We developed structured worksheets to aid residents in teaching medical students. In this pilot study, we measured the impact of the material by conducting end of clerkship focus groups between October 2017 to June 2018 and administering surveys to medical students who had recently completed the clerkship. We performed analyses of the focus group transcriptions for positive and negative themes and analyzed questionnaire data utilizing unpaired t-test and chi-square test to determine whether resident use of structured worksheets influenced student perception of resident teaching quality.

SETTING

Medical students rotated at either an academically affiliated public safety-net hospital or tertiary maternity care hospital.

PARTICIPANTS

Medical students completing the OB/GYN clerkship volunteered to participate.

RESULTS

A total of 37 students participated in focus groups and completed the survey. Focus group comments revealed a generally positive attitude towards the structured worksheets. The survey data revealed that this material helped to facilitate student's clinical reasoning skills and assisted residents in using questions to effectively teach.

CONCLUSIONS

Structured worksheets can aid resident teaching on the OB/GYN clerkship. Students perceived the teaching material most favorably when residents utilized the material in a purposeful and timely manner. Effective resident use of structured worksheets on the OB/GYN clerkship can strengthen a culture that promotes student learning.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40670-021-01318-7.

Differences in clerkship development between public and private Brazilian medical schools: an overview

BACKGROUND

Around the world, it is very expensive to become a physician. Although public medical schools are less expensive than private medical schools, tuition fees are charged at public medical schools in the majority of countries. In Brazil, public medical schools, with the exception of municipal schools, are free. There has been little investigation of any differences in conditions offered by paid or free medical schools or what occurs in public and private clerkships in Brazil. We investigated the clerkship conditions offered to the students in both public and private Brazilian medical schools by gathering the opinions of clerkship coordinators and others responsible for clerkships.

METHODS

A cross-sectional, descriptive, analytical study using an electronic questionnaire was answered by clerkship coordinators to compare the clerkships of 30 public and 38 private Brazilian medical schools from all regions of the country. The questionnaires covered various aspects of the clinical environments, student supervision, faculty development, student assessments, rotation evaluations and extracurricular activities developed by students.

RESULTS

We observed significant differences between public and private medical schools in several aspects investigated. Based on the opinions of the clerkship coordinators, with the exception of access to university hospitals, which was predominantly offered by public medical schools, private medical schools offer better clerkship conditions. The main differences were related to the number of positions, infrastructure, clinical learning environments, faculty development, student assessments, rotation evaluations and students' extracurricular activities.

CONCLUSION

This is the first study comparing Brazilian medical clerkships in private and public medical schools and provides a general vision of these programmes. It is necessary to further investigate clerkship development in the Brazilian medical school system and to study the differences between private and public medical schools globally.