Does early clinical exposure enhance performance during third-year clerkship?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Skills Assessment
• Health Equity

Background:

• Third-year medical clerkships are crucial for developing clinical knowledge and professional skills.
• Early clinical exposure in diverse settings may enhance student preparedness.
• Assessing the impact of free clinic experiences on student performance is important for curriculum development.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effect of early clinical exposure in an indigent care free clinic on third-year medical students.
• To assess impacts on mini-board scores (clinical knowledge), faculty evaluations, and final rotation grades.

Main Methods:

• A comparative study design was used, comparing participants with non-participants after third-year clerkships.
• Statistical analyses included comparative statistics, repeated measure analysis, and analyses of variance.
• Data were analyzed for the entire group, by sex, and by individual rotation.

Main Results:

• No statistically significant differences were found in overall performance metrics between participants and non-participants.
• Subgroup analyses suggested potential variations, warranting further investigation.
• Negative findings may be attributed to small sample size and the outpatient nature of the free clinic versus inpatient clerkships.

Conclusions:

• Early clinical exposure in this specific free clinic setting did not yield significant measurable improvements in standard third-year clerkship outcomes.
• Limitations such as sample size and setting mismatch (outpatient vs. inpatient) may have influenced results.
• Ongoing data collection aims to explore long-term effects and refine understanding of early clinical exposure benefits.