Comparison of Clinical Skills of 3rd-Year Students Who Completed Structured Clinical Skills Program With 6th-Year Students Who Acquired Clinical Skills in Unsystematic Way

Abstract

Background: The timing and methods of teaching clinical skills are some of the main concerns of medical education. Purpose: The aim of this study was to compare clinical skills of the 3rd and 6th-year students who acquired clinical skills training within different years and methods. Methods: Randomly chosen students were observed and evaluated in the form of "did it-didn't do it" over the checklists composed of parameters of communication, history taking, and physical examination. The results were evaluated on the SPSS 10.0 for Windows program and Pearson chi-square test was used in the statistical analyses. Results: Third-year students who had clinical skills training in early years and structured methods had better results for most of the parameters (p <. 05). Conclusions: The clinical skills training given through a structured program that is widespread in the early years of medical school makes a great contribution to the development of students' clinical skills.