ASTHMA TRAINING IN 3RD-YEAR MEDICAL-STUDENTS

To assess the educational experiences of physicians-in-training with a sthma patients, we had medical students complete asthma surveys at the beginning and end of their internal medicine clerkship (IMC). At the beginning of the IMC, all students received a 1-hr asthma lecture and half of the students received a compilation of pocket cards containing many of the algorithms from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Insti tute asthma guidelines. We found that students had relatively few enco unters with asthmatic patients during the IMC. Students were good judg es of asthma severity but performed poorly on survey questions pertain ing to asthma treatment. Confidence in treating and assessing patients improved by the end of the IMC, but remained low. We conclude that th e usual 1-hr lecture and limited contact with asthma patients during t he IMC may be inadequate to train students to care for patients with a sthma.