Effects of varying inpatient attending physician rotation length on medical students’ and attending physicians’ perceptions of teaching quality.

Link to article at PubMed

Effects of varying inpatient attending physician rotation length on medical students' and attending physicians' perceptions of teaching quality.

Teach Learn Med. 2011 Jan;23(1):37-41

Authors: Elnicki DM, Cooper A

Background: Patient care needs and work hour restrictions have altered inpatient internal medicine educational experiences. Purpose: The goal is to compare different attending physician rotation lengths on medical students' and attending physicians' experiences. Methods: We studied clerkship students' evaluations (N= 86) and internal medicine attending surveys (N= 21). We divided attending experiences into 2-week and 4-week rotations. We assessed exam scores and evaluations with 5-point Likert questions (5 = strongly agree). Means were compared with t tests, Wilcoxon Ranked Sums, and logistic regression. Results: More than 90% of students and attending physicians responded. Students and attending physicians generally evaluated their 2- and 4-week experiences similarly. Attending physicians favored 4 weeks for evaluating students' performance (3.30 vs. 4.36, p< .01). Exam scores were similar in the 2- and 4-week student groups (M = 78.2, SD = 5.0 vs. 76.5, SD = 8.5, p= .43). Conclusions: Shorter rotations do not negatively impact students' experiences. Obtaining quality evaluations may be difficult for shorter rotations.

PMID: 21240781 [PubMed - in process]

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