Effects of a new parallel primary healthcare centre and on-campus training programme on history taking, physical examination skills and medical students’ preparedness: a prospective comparative study in Taiwan

OBJECTIVES The primary healthcarecentre (PHCC) is the first place that medical students experience patient contact. Usually, medical students are frustrated by a lack of proper skills training for on-campus history taking (HT), physical examination (PE) and self-directed learning (SDL) to prepare for their PHCC and inhospital patient contact. For pre-clerks, this study aims to compare the effectiveness of PHCC training and PHCC training in combination with on-campus HT and PE training modules (PHCC+on-campus) on their clerkship preparedness. DESIGN This comparative study utilised prospective, consecutive, end of pre-clerkship group objective structured clinical examination (GOSCE), beginning of clerkship OSCE and self-administered Preparation for Hospital Practice Questionnaire (PHPQ). SETTING/PARTICIPANTS 128 pre-clinical clerk volunteers (64 each year) receiving PHCC training (7 week PHCCtraining in addition to 7 week assignment based group learning, academic year 2014, controls) and PHCC training in combination with on-campus module training (academic year 2015, 7 week PHCCtraining in addition to 7 week on-campus sessions) were sequentially assessed before the module (week 1), at the end of the module (week 14) and at the beginning of clerkship (week 25). RESULTS For overall HT and PE skills, both PHCC and PHCC+on-campus module trained pre-clerks performed better on OSCE than GOSCE. Additionally, the improvement was accompanied by higher self-reported PHPQ scores in 'confidence/coping' and 'SDL' domains. At the end of the pre-clerkship and the beginning of the clerkship stages, the degree of improvement in preparedness in 'confidence/coping' and 'SDL' domains was higher for those in the PHCC+on-campus group than for those in the PHCC group. Among the PHCC+on-campus module participants, a positive association was observed between high mean PHPQ-SDL scores and high OSCE scores. CONCLUSIONS Our study suggests that the PHCC+on-campus module, which is paired faculty led and pre-trained dyad student assisted, is effective in developing a preclinical clerk's HT and PE skills and intensifying SDL/patient management abilities to prepare for hospital practice in clerkship.