Impact of the outpatient clerkship on medical students

Using an anonymous questionnaire, the authors assessed the professional relevance of outpatient and inpatient curricula and the didactic value of different parts of the clerkship for 80 junior medical students randomly assigned to a pilot clerkship. Significantly more medical students preferred outpatient to inpatient psychiatry; they supported the view that working with outpatients is more useful, rewarding, and educational for the nonpsychiatrist physician. The implications of this study include the need to increase the outpatient psychiatric experience in medical school, the importance of surveying the impact of learning settings on students, and the reasonableness of adapting the curriculum to the didactic needs of students.