Perception of medical interns towards the skills they acquired

. The undergraduate medical course in India is for five-and-a-half years. Every medical student has to undergo compulsory rotating residential internship for 12 months. During this period, interns acquire skills under supervision. The literature shows they have limited experience and confidence in performing basic and emergency procedures. We assessed interns' perception of their experience and competence.

. We did a questionnaire-based cross-sectional study among medical students after they had completed their internship to reflect on their experience and competence in various procedural skills. A questionnaire (25 questions) based on knowledge and skills was piloted by 15 interns and was reliable (Cronbach alpha 0.9). The Likert scale ranged from never observed to performed independently under supervision.

. Seventy-eight of 80 interns responded; 51 were females (65.3%). Three-quarters of interns felt they could independently carry out venous blood sample collection, arterial blood gas interpretation, Pap smear specimen collection and digital rectal examination, but only half felt that they could do a lumbar puncture, cervical dilatation and collection of throat swab. Parenteral drug administration, catheterization, nasogastric tube insertion and cardiopulmonary resuscitation were done confidently by over 90%, but vaginal delivery and application of a plaster slab required assistance. The majority said that they had observed drainage of abscess, excision of sebaceous cyst and endotracheal tube intubation.

. Most interns felt that they were competent in performing simple surgical tasks independently. However, conducting a vaginal delivery and endotracheal tube intubation were tasks that needed more support.