A session of multiple choice questions in the orientation process to the adolescent medicine rotation

Although adolescent health care training curricula for resident physicians have been developed during the past 2 decades, little is known about the orientation process to the adolescent medicine rotation.

Since 1996, we have incorporated a session consisting of 40 multiple-choice questions (MCQ) in the orientation process to our hospital-based adolescent medicine rotation. In this study, we evaluated residents' opinions about the MCQ format.

An anonymous questionnaire was distributed in 2002 to 123 resident physicians who had gone through an adolescent medicine rotation between 1996 and 2002. A total of 68 physicians responded (55% response rate). Almost all respondents (99%) stated that the MCQ session was a good format to use during orientation to adolescent medicine. Most (85%) said that it previewed issues that they had to face during the rotation, 74% said that it allowed them to think about issues in adolescent medicine, and 65% said that it directed them to subjects they needed to read about for this rotation. About 45% of respondents stated that the MCQ session increased their level of comfort with seeing adolescent patients on the first few days of the rotation. The majority of respondents (71%) stated that an attending needed to personally review the answers with the residents. Of these, all said that the attending could expand and explore the issues, and 71% said that the attending could show locations and use of certain instruments (orchidometer, scoliometer, etc.) related to questions. Almost a fifth (18%) preferred to receive a printed answer sheet that they could review privately. Of these, 58% feared that review with an attending might prejudice the attending against them if they had errors, and 25% stated that it would be too stressful for them to have the attending check their answers on the 1st day of the rotation. Most respondents (87%) recommended that the MCQ format be used as part of the orientation process to other rotations as well.

Resident physicians viewed the MCQ session as a good format to use in the orientation process to the adolescent medicine rotation. A review of the answers with an attending was preferred over receiving a printed answer sheet.