[Undergraduate teaching of internal medicine in a private hospital]

There is a 10 years teaching experience for fourth year medical students and interns in a Chilean private hospital. The students attend an eight weeks practical course. The interns rotate during 16 weeks by specialties and make shifts. The hospital structure with Clinical Services and Medical-Surgical departments facilitates the teaching process. There are approximately 30,000 admissions per year with a mean stay of 3.7 days, that allow the students to be in touch with patients with different diseases that are managed with updated technology. We emphasize the ethical and clinical management of concrete problems of patients, learning and communication skills. The students evaluate their stay answering surveys and with semi structured interviews. Teaching is assessed by tutors and heads of departments, in clinical rounds, sometimes prepared by the students, by a thorough revision of problem oriented medical records and with practical and theoretical tests. The results of the program have been quite satisfactory for participants.