Effect of Ambulatory Care Training on Third-Year Medical Students' Knowledge and Skills

Background: Increasingly, medical students are being trained in nonhospital settings, yet relatively few studies have looked at the impact of doing so on student achievement. Purpose: We conducted a study of the effectiveness of an ambulatory care educational experience on students' performance on measures of knowledge of ambulatory medicine and related clinical skills. Method: We exposed 40 students to 1 week of ambulatory care training (ACT)during their medicine clerkship--1 hr of didactic instruction per day and the remainder of each day (about 7 hr) consisting of experiential learning in practicing internists' offices. ACT students' performance was compared to that of 40 non-ACT classmates. Results: ACT students scored significantly better than non-ACT students on a multiple- choice test. ACT students also scored significantly higher on a standardized patient clinical skills examination. Conclusions: One week of ACT can be effective in improving students' knowledge and skills related to such training.