INFLUENCE OF A MEDICINE CLERKSHIP CONFERENCE SERIES ON STUDENTS ACQUISITION OF KNOWLEDGE

Purpose. To determine whether an intensive conference series during a third-year medicine clerkship would produce a significant improvement in students' standard scores on the National Board of Medical Examiner s (NBME) medicine subject examination when taken at the end of the cle rkship and on the medicine section of the NBME Part II examination whe n taken during the fourth year. Method. A conference series of approxi mately 50 hours covering core topics of internal medicine was begun at the Oregon Health Sciences University School of Medicine in 1984-85. The series was repeated every 12 weeks, for each rotation of the third -year medicine clerkship. Standard scores on the NBME medicine subject examination taken at the end of the medicine clerkship and the medici ne section of the NBME Il taken in the fourth year were compared betwe en the 173 students who participated in the conference series in 1984- 85 and 1985-86 and the 466 students who took the clerkship from 1980-8 1 through 1983-84, before the conference series was implemented. The s tudents' NBME II scores in surgery and pediatrics, the other disciplin es that had 12-week clerkships but that did not implement curricular c hanges in 1984-85 and 1985-86, were also compared, as were the student s' scores on the NBME I, which the students took prior to the medicine clerkship. Results. The NBME I scores were not different between the two groups of students. The students who took the conference series ha d standard scores on the NBME medicine subject examination that were o n average 49 points higher than the scores of those students who did n ot take the conference series. This difference was closely maintained on the medicine section of the NBME II, on which the group that took t he series had a mean score that was 44 points higher. No improvement w as seen in scores on the surgery and pediatrics sections of the NBME I I. Discussion. This retrospective review of students' performances on NBME medicine examinations taken at the end of the third-year medicine clerkship and as a component of the NBME II documents a substantial i mprovement in performance for students who took an intensive conferenc e series as a part of the medicine clerkship curriculum. Further, the students' improved performance level carried over into the fourth year .