R. F. Brown1, M. Shen1, A. Charles1 1University Of North Carolina,Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Introduction: The transition from pre-clinical years to full time clinical studies is a difficult and often anxiety-inducing experience for medical students. Our aim was to assess the efficacy of a resident driven two-hour workshop in preparing pre-clinical medical students to start clinical rotations.
Methods: A prospective survey measuring comfort (1=least to 5=most comfortable) and anxiety (1=least to 5=most anxious) levels was administered to a convenience sample of pre-clinical medical students prior to transitioning to clinical rotations. The same survey was administered to students following their voluntary participation in a resident driven transitions workshop. Pre-workshop and post-workshop scores were averaged and compared using simple T-test.
Results: The response rate for the pre-course survey was 93% (65/70) for all students and 95% (42/44) for the post-course test, administered only to students who participated. There were no differences in age, gender, or race between the two groups of surveyed students. Students reported a significant increase in overall comfort with daily hospital tasks after participation in the resident workshop (3.7±0.89) when compared to all students prior to the workshop (3.25±1.10 (p<0.0001), with statistically significant improvement in 13/19 sections (p<0.0001 for all) and improvement nearing significance in 3 additional section (p<0.07) (See Figure 1). Students also reported decreased overall anxiety after workshop participation (3.09±1.15 vs. 2.82±1.05, p=0.0001), with significant decrease in anxiety in 2/10 sections included in the survey (p=0.02, 0.008) and nearing significance in one additional section (p=0.061).
Conclusions: Students reported increased comfort and decreased anxiety after participation in a resident driven pre-clinical workshop. These data suggest that hands-on experience with pre-rounding exercises as well as interaction with residents prior to starting clinical rotations can provide a potential benefit to medical students.
