Independent study: 10-year programme review.

The Ohio State University College of Medicine has offered an independent study curricular option since 1970. This study reports our experience covering 10 entering classes and compares the independent study programme (ISP) students to the students who entered the traditional lecture-discussion programme (LDP). It looks at (a) entering demographic and personality characteristics, (b) academic, clinical and research performance during school and at graduation and (c) practice and career outcomes. The major findings are that, as groups, students from the two curricular programmes are far more alike than different but that the flexibility of an independent study programme provides special options without loss of academic achievement. Individual talents and interests were enhanced and research opportunities have aided recruitment and development of particular students. Independent study students pursued more research during medical school and hold more full-time academic positions in practice. A comparative cost study showed that, once the two programmes are operational, per student operational costs are equivalent. Results of this study indicate, that at Ohio State, the benefits of a two-track system outweigh the additional costs.

A comparison of medical students' performances in independent study and traditional programs.

Medical students at Ohio State University may study the basic medical sciences in an independent study program or in a conventional lecture-discussion program. In a study involving more than 2,000 students over a 10-year period, students pursuing the independent study program and students in the more traditional program performed similarly on Part I of the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) examinations and in their required clerkships. However, differences were identified in some content areas and resulted in curricular changes.

A study of faculty attitudes toward Ohio State's three-year medical program.

Three-year curricula, once a proliferating innovation in medical education, are now rapidly waning with the fading of capitation support and the easing of physician manpower shortages. In this article the authors examine faculty opinion of a three-year medical program at the Ohio State University. Using a Likert attitude-scaling technique, the authors developed a questionnaire and administered it to full-time faculty members. Five issues upon which faculty opinion was found to be most diverse include: adequacy of content in a three-year program, time available for faculty to do research, work demands on faculty, basic medical knowledge of three-year students, and quality of post-M.D. positions obtained by three-year graduates. Overall, three general deficiencies in the three-year curriculum, as perceived by faculty, emerged: students have limited instruction in basic medical knowledge and skills; unnecessary emotional, physical, and economic demands are imposed; and neither student learning nor quality of teaching is enhanced.

Community-based Practitioners as Medical Student Preceptors-Dispelling an Old Myth.

This study was designed to compare the teaching abilities of community-based preceptors and university-based clinical faculty, as judged by two matched groups of students. On only one of 13 dimensions of clinical teaching was there a significant difference between the preceptors and university-based faculty: preceptors were reported to use demonstrations less than their university-based colleagues. The study shows that despite their other commitments and lack of formal training in didactic skills, community-based practitioners can provide sound educational experiences and, in the students' opinions, are as competent teachers as clinical, university-based faculty.