Evaluation of skills during clerkships u focus groups training sing student

Abstract

At the medical faculty of the University of Antwerp, student focus groups were used to evaluate the process of training basic clinical and procedural skills during clerkships. Eighteen final-year medical students participated and received modest remuneration. Two parallel groups had three meetings during which four topics were discussed. Finally, one consensus text was approved by students. Findings were that skills training was insufficiently attuned to clerkships, a clerkships logbook was not well used by students or faculty and the junior doctor is the most important teacher during the clerkships. Students also reported a lack of feedback. They liked 'on calls' and outpatient clinics, and preferred peripheral clinics to the larger university hospital. The general conclusion is that in this conventional medical school, clerkships resemble a mix of many unstructured educational events.