The perceptions of final year medical students in rheumatology workshops when delivered by a consultant and a nurse clinical educator.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether final year medical students' perceptions of teaching workshops delivered by a consultant rheumatologist are similar those of the same workshops delivered by an experienced nurse clinical educator (NCE). METHODS The design was a semi-randomized post-test intervention study. The consultant and NCE alternated in presenting eight teaching workshops to four groups of six final year medical students. After each of the workshops, students evaluated the feedback by self-completed questionnaires. RESULTS Seventy-three questionnaires were available from the consultant workshops and 65 from the NCE ones. There was no difference in the overall scores for the consultant and the NCE. The consultant scored significantly higher on two individual questions, but these differences were lost when we adjusted for multiple testing. CONCLUSION We were unable to demonstrate a major difference between the feedback received from medical students in workshops delivered by an enthusiastic consultant and an experienced NCE.