Effectiveness of basic clinical skills training programmes: a cross-sectional comparison of four medical schools

Objective Training in physical diagnostic skills is an important part of un dergraduate medical education. The objective of this study was to study the outcome of skills training at four medical schools. Context At the time of the study, three schools had a traditional lecture-b ased curriculum and one school had a problem-based learning curriculum with longitudinal skills training programme. All schools offer extended exposur e to clerkships. Method A cross-sectional study in four medical schools was performed, using a written test of skills that has good correlation with actual student per formance. The scores attained from four student groups were compared within and between the four medical schools. A total of 859 volunteer students fr om the later four years at each medical school participated in the study. Results The mean scores in the traditional medical schools increased with t he start of skill training and the hands-on experience offered during the c lerkships. Students from the school with the longitudinal skills training p rogramme and the problem-based learning approach had significantly higher m ean scores at the start of the clerkships, and maintained their lead in the subsequent clinical years. Conclusions Longitudinal skills training seems to offer the students a supe rior preparation for clerkships as well as influencing the students' learni ng abilities during the clerkships. The effect of the problem-based learnin g approach, also related to the innovative philosophy of the curriculum, co uld not be accounted for.