[Implementation of the academic day for undergraduate interns]

Medical internship is an important period in the formation of a general (or medical) practitioner, in which the student becomes a member of the "health community" and also applies all the knowledge he or she has received during the university lectures. The present study aims to evaluate the impact of the implementation of the academic day programme designed for undergraduate medical interns within the Mexican second level healthcare Hospital General Regional No. 6 "Dr. Ignacio García Téllez".

A comparative and also a prospective study were applied to a sample of 56 medical interns who participated in the academic day implementation. The impact of the scheme was assessed using the notes of the different exams at the beginning and end of the medical internship. The non-parametrical Wilcoxon test was used for the statistical analysis for comparison between the initial and final notes.

A positive difference was observed in the notes of the modules of internal medicine, pediatrics, gynecology, emergency, general surgery, and family medicine applied at the beginning and end of the implementation of the academic day (p=0.000).

Basic guidelines should be established for educational training from an active-participative perspective as the academic day scheme; these rules should significatively increase the medical intern learning process and, as a logical consequence would have a positive influence on healthcare quality.