Clinical experience during the paediatric undergraduate course

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Skills Assessment
• Healthcare Training

Background:

• Medical students require exposure to core conditions and skills during clinical attachments.
• Assessing the adequacy of this exposure is crucial for effective training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate medical students' clinical experience regarding core conditions and skills.
• To correlate this experience with assessment outcomes and teaching received.

Main Methods:

• Self-completion questionnaires administered to year one and year two medical students at Cambridge Clinical School.
• Analysis of student exposure to 42 core conditions and 20 core skills.
• Correlation of clinical experience data with end-of-attachment assessment marks.

Main Results:

• Significant variation in exposure rates to core conditions among students, with some conditions seen by less than 70%.
• Core skill performance varied, with some critical skills like newborn examinations performed by a small percentage.
• Student core condition scores correlated with skill scores and hospital grade, but not directly with teaching received.

Conclusions:

• Clinical experience, particularly in core conditions and skills, is unevenly distributed among medical students.
• Supervisor assessment of clinical experience may be more indicative of competence than theoretical knowledge or teaching hours.
• Healthcare training programs need to ensure consistent exposure to essential clinical competencies.