Intensive bedside teaching of physical examination to medical undergraduates: evaluation including the effect of...

The effectiveness of intensive bedside teaching of techniques of physical examination of the alimentary system to students commencing their clinical training was assessed. All students viewed a videotape demonstrating these techniques and then participated in a morning practice examination session but only half of the class received afternoon bedside teaching of physical examination in addition. Teaching in history taking was used as a 'placebo' for the control group, and half the students in each of the study and control groups were taught in units of four, the other half in units of eight. Thus the effect of group size could also be estimated. After 1 week, the students' performance of a physical examination was assessed using a standardized scoring chart which demonstrated good reliability. The study group performed significantly better than the control and within the study group there was a trend for the students taught in smaller units to perform better.