Social interactions are integral to clinical workplace functioning and are recognised to play an important role in clinical workplace learning. How, why and to what end students, in the context of today's culturally and linguistically diverse cohorts, interact with members of clinical workplace communities during clinical workplace learning is not…

The third year clerkship is one of the most exciting and challenging times for medical students (Cooke, Irby, & O'Brien, 2010) when students spend significant time in clinical settings (e.g., hospitals) assisting in the care of patients on a daily basis. Getting information and resources just-in-time and at point-of-care (Author, 2009) is one…

Advocates of holistic assessment consider the ITER a more authentic way to assess performance. But this assessment format is subjective and, therefore, susceptible to rater bias. Here our objective was to study the association between rater variables and ITER ratings. In this observational study our participants were clerks at the University of…

Clerkship education has been called a "black box" because so little is known about what, how, and under which conditions students learn. Our aim was to develop a blueprint for education in ambulatory and inpatient settings, and in single encounters, traditional rotations, or longitudinal experiences. We identified 548 causal links…

Graduate medical trainees in the UK appreciate mentors who demonstrate learner-centredness as modelled by Rogers. This case study was undertaken to examine how, in one instance, learner-centred may be supervision within the tight confines of a formal, competency-based programme of training. Four formal interviews (in 18 months), were analysed to…

Medical education in the US has adapted to the shift of patient care from hospital to ambulatory settings by developing educational opportunities in outpatient settings. Faculty development efforts must acknowledge learners' perspectives to be effective in improving teaching and learning. Clinics provide important and unique learning…

A preceptorship program design to introduce preclinical students to primary care in both underserved and adequately served communities is described. A preliminary evaluation of the program's first year indicates that it has had an impact on the students' attitudes. (Author/MLW)

To minimize the effects of systematic differences in raters' standards of clinical competence, a handicapping system was applied to the ratings made by fourteen preceptors of 128 junior year medical students in a 6-week psychiatry clerkship at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. The handicap of a preceptor was the difference between…

A study is reported that examined whether the status of preceptors was related to the rating of their teaching ability in a history-taking course by first-year medical students and whether the students' performances were affected by preceptor status. (MLW)

The core surgical clerkship is described as the most intensive clinical experience during the student's first three years, and one which is extremely difficult to examine systematically. The research strategy, methodologies, data collected, and major findings of a study of such clerkships are reported. The data from more than 1000 hours of…

Personality and a social support system are two factors that may influence women medical students' choice of a rural primary care specialty. The 2-year study of 11 University of New Mexico School of Medicine women students engaged in 4-month rural primary care preceptorships included interviews and a personality inventory. Three women had…

An evaluation approach was designed to meet the unique needs of community-based clinical education programs. The implementation of such an evaluation system is described in the context of one such course in family medicine taught at multiple sites at the University of Washington School of Medicine. (Author/LBH)

The key element in a clerkship in family practice at Community Hospital, Santa Rosa, California, is the student's General Medical Clinic. Under the supervision of a family physician teacher, senior medical students work as a team with family nurse practitioners caring for patients. (Author/JMD)