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Abstract
Background: In 2004, the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, developed the McMaster Community and Rural Education program (Mac-CARE), to coordinate core rotations for undergraduate and post-graduate medical learners in communities in Southern Ontario.
Aims: The purpose of this study is to compare the academic performance of medical clerks learning at distributed sites to students who remained in Hamilton using four measures of academic performance.
Methods: Progress test, OSCE, clerkship scores, and pre-clerkship tutorial-based evaluations were collected and Mac-CARE students were compared to non-Mac-CARE students on each performance measure using ANOVA.
Results: Outcomes are based on the first cohort to engage in Mac-CARE rotations. There were no statistically significant differences in academic performance between the 2 groups before the intervention rotation (pre-clerkship and clerkship evaluations, progress tests, or an inaugural OSCE). Mac-CARE students, however, scored higher on their post-clerkship OSCE than did non-Mac-CARE students.
Conclusion: This study has shown that academic performance among students was at least comparable across all learning sites. To our knowledge, this is the first such study to be published within a Canadian context.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Flavia Bianchi
FLAVIA BIANCHI, BES, MES is the Program Evaluator and Research Assistant for the Mac-CARE Program at McMaster University. She is also an MSc candidate in the program of Health Research Methodology, in the Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University.
Karl Stobbe
KARL STOBBE, MD, CCFP (EM), FCFP is a family physician in Beamsville, Ontario, and the Director of Mac-CARE. He also leads the McMaster Expansion Planning Team which is developing medical campuses in the Mac-CARE region.
Kevin Eva
KEVIN EVA, PhD is Associate Professor and Associate Chair in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University. He is a member of McMaster's Program for Educational Research and Development and Chairs the Evaluation Committee for its medical school.