AUDIT - TEACHING MEDICAL-STUDENTS IN GENERAL-PRACTICE

Audit is being seen as an increasingly important topic for medical stu dents. Many departments of general practice in the UK now incorporate audit as part of their course work. It remains controversial as to whe ther this is perceived to be worthwhile by the students. Following an introductory seminar final-year medical students at the University of Glasgow were asked to perform a case-note review of 10 randomly chosen diabetic patients for a number of process and outcome measures during their practice attachments. Feedback was given in their final teachin g session. 128/153 (84%) students completed an evaluation of the cours e on their knowledge and attitudes to audit. Unsurprisingly, 39% found the data collection boring or very boring; however, 60% found the fee dback session very interesting or interesting. Both the data collectio n and the feedback were considered relevant by the majority of student s (57% and 70% respectively). Students' self-reported knowledge also d ramatically increased (P < 0.0001).