Early clinical experiences from students' perspectives: a qualitative study of narratives.

Purpose: To gain insight into how early clinical experiences contribute to medical students' professional development.

Method: Qualitative content analysis of second-year Mayo Medical School students' reflective journal essays pertaining to their first experiences with inpatients (from 2002 to 2004) was done using a grounded theory approach. The apprenticeship model of professional learning (knowledge and cognitive abilities, technical skills, and ethical standards) and perspectives from learning theory provided the conceptual framework.

Prolonged delays for research training in medical school are associated with poorer subsequent clinical knowledge.

Background: Complementary degree programs and research training are important alternative tracks in medical school that typically interrupt the traditional MD curriculum.

Objective: Examine effects of such a break on clinical knowledge after reentry into the MD curriculum.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Evaluating an instrument for the peer review of inpatient teaching.

The purpose of this study was to assess an instrument for the peer review of inpatient teaching at Mayo. The Mayo Teaching Evaluation Form (MTEF) is an instrument, based on the Stanford seven-category educational framework, which was developed for the peer review of inpatient teaching. The MTEF has 28 Likert-scaled items derived from the Stanford Faculty Development Program form (SFDP-26), the Mayo electronic evaluation form and three additional items.