Preparing new doctors for clinical practice: an evaluation of pre-internship training

A consistent finding in the literature is that newly graduated medical students often do not prossess the basic skills required to perform their jobs. Training designed to prepare newly graduated medical students for intermship was developed and delivered to 106 newly graduated medical students. Feedback on the course was obtained using anonymous pre-and post-course questionaires. A total of 32 students (52.5% of the recourse respondents) felt that they were prepared prior to the training, compared wit 51students (79.7% of the post-course respondents) who felt prepared for intership after the training. The largest effect size of the training was for the administration of medication (Cohen's d = 0.93). Futher development to the training programme is required. Nevertheless, it is suggested that this course serve as a model to address the unsatisfactory levels of preparedness for the work of a junior reported by medical students from many countries.