Medical Students in Clerkship in China Benefit More in Modified Bedside Teaching of Neurology

Bedside teaching is a good teaching modality which can improve clinical skills and learn about humanistic patient care. Clerkship is a special stage of medical teaching in China. We aimed to seek for a proper bedside teaching modality in clerkship of neurology by this research. A total of ninety-six (96) medical students were enrolled; they attended the teaching ground round of patients with cerebral infarction and cerebral hemorrhage. However, the teacher used classical method (bedside only) in the cerebral infarction patients while modified bedside teaching was used in hemorrhage patients (bedside with discussion room). Questionnaires and test of the students were used to evaluate efforts of the two methods. A total of ninety-six (96) questionnaires were collected, of which eighty-six (86) were valid (89.6%). Students preferred the modified bedside teaching (p< 0.0001). It provided students better understanding of disease, enhance their ability to make diagnostic and treatment decisions, improve their test grades and increased their interest in neurology (p < 0.05). With the modified method, patients were more co-operative, the instructors could communicate more with students (p< 0.05). The modified bedside teaching was compared with the classical one in the clerkship of neurology and its adventure proven in clerkship of neurology.