EFFECT OF AMBULATORY CARE TRAINING ON 3RD-YEAR MEDICAL-STUDENTS KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS

Background: Increasingly, medical students are being trained in nonhos pital settings, yet relatively few studies have looked at the impact o f doing so on student achievement. Purpose: We conducted a study of th e effectiveness of an ambulatory care educational experience on studen ts' performance on measures of knowledge of ambulatory medicine and re lated clinical skills. Method: We exposed 40 students to 1 week of amb ulatory care training (ACT) during their medicine clerkship-1 hr of di dactic instruction per day and the remainder of each day (about 7 hr) consisting of experiential learning in practicing internists' offices. A CT students' performance was compared to that of 40 non-A CT classm ates. Results: ACT students scored significantly better than non-ACT s tudents on a multiple-choice test. ACT students also scored significan tly higher on a standardized patient clinical skills examination. Conc lusions: One week of ACT can be effective in improving students' knowl edge and skills related to such training.