A strategy to standardize the learning of core clerkship objectives.

Background: Consistent and effective implementation of clinical clerkship objectives remains elusive. Using the behavioral principles of self assessment, active learning and learner differences, we designed an objectives checklist to ensure that all students mastered a core body of internal medicine (IM) knowledge and to facilitate self-directed learning.

Methods: We developed a 54-item learning objectives checklist card in the IM clerkship.