The relationship between medical students' eagerness in clinical clerkships and their interest in medical departments / 医学教育

Medical students must have motivation to participate in medical care during clinical clerkships. How much interest students have in each department might be a factor in making them more active in clerkships. To make clerkships more effective, we performed a questionnaire survey to investigate the relationship between students' interest in each department and their eagerness in clinical clerkships and to investigate factors to increase their eagerness.<br>1) Questionnaires were distributed to 92 sixth-year medical students at the University of Tsukuba. The questionnaire consisted of 6-point Likert scales of 4 specific student attitudes in clerkships. We asked the same questions about clerkships at medical departments that each student found more or less interesting.<br>2) We asked the students to report anecdotes about when they were motivated to learn more in the clerkships. We grouped similar answers into categories.<br>3) The response rate was 94%. The students were more eager in departments they found more interesting than in departments they found less interesting.<br>4) Thirty-eight students reported a total of 56 anecdotes. Among the categories, questions or words of encouragement from patients were mentioned in 29 anecdotes, and devoted faculty members were mentioned in 9 anecdotes.<br>5) These results suggest that medical students' eagerness in clinical clerkships could be increased by deepening their interest in medical departments and by improving communication with patients and physicians.

Elective Overseas Clinical Clerkships and Related Problems / 医学教育

At this university, an overseas component has been included in the elective clinical clerkship program for sixth-year students since 1998. Since that time, 28 students have done short-term clinical clerkships in various foreign countries. This report presents results of a questionnaire survey of students who have done overseas clerkships. The questionnaire comprised 8 items, including the reason for selecting the clerkship location and the contents of the training program. Questionnaires were returned by 68% of students. Most of the 28 students did clerkships in English-speaking countries. The average duration of study was 2.3 months (range, 1 to 3 months). All students were satisfied with their training experience; however, many felt their language skills were insufficient for participating in overseas training programs. In addition, more comprehensive arrangements, including establishing close contact with the receiving institutions and insurance provisions, are needed to maintain and further develop overseas clinical clerkships.