A training session in a clinical simulation laboratory for the acquisition of clinical skills by newly-recruited medical interns.

In organized orientation programs for newly recruited medical interns of the Nippon Medical School Hospital, the working committee of the clinical simulation laboratory introduced a laboratory training session that was designed to improve the clinical skills of the medical interns. The session consisted of 6 training courses, comprising internal examination, tracheal intubation, auscultation of heart sounds, bandaging and the collection of samples of venous and arterial blood. Medical interns rotated to a new course every 30 minutes and did practical trainings in each of the 6 skills. A total of 36 newly recruited medical interns participated in the training session. The majority of medical interns took part in the practical training actively and positively. The session was efficiently carried out from the standpoints of human resources and the teaching hours involved. A post training questionnaire survey, completed by the medical interns, revealed that many of them valued the sessions for comprehensibility of the instructions, the descriptions in the manual and the content of the training; however, only 21% thought that they had successfully acquired the clinical skills. Medical interns must continually engage in self-training to steadily acquire basic clinical skills. The convenience of a clinical simulation laboratory, together with the reinforcement of the education of clinical skills during internship, is necessary to strengthen the educational benefits of the training session.