Evaluation of an Infectious Diseases Elective for Early Clinical Medical Students on Their Internal Medicine Clerkship

Abstract

Background Early medical subspecialty training is an emerging trend in medical education. These electives are still rare for Early Clinical Medical Students (ECMS). We describe the introduction of an Infectious Disease (ID) inpatient consult rotation elective for ECMS. Methods In addition to seeing patients and rounding with the inpatient ID consult team, we created a supplemental curriculum to provide added support for ECMS which included a checklist of clinical skills learning objectives, self-directed, publicly available mini lectures on ID topics, and an ID Coach who provided directed and personalized tutoring for students. We surveyed ECMS, ID fellows and attendings on service, and ID Coaches to evaluate the acceptability, feasibility, and effectiveness of this rotation and curriculum. Results The majority of ECMS reported that the rotation was a useful educational experience, and that the ID Coach was one of the most valuable aspects of the rotation. The majority of ID fellows and attendings reported that working with ECMS improved their job satisfaction and well-being. Discussion This multi-faceted approach to early medical subspecialty training was valuable for ECMS, ID fellows and faculty. Ongoing improvements in this curriculum will provide a useful tool for medical education.

Tutors Matter: The Relationship between Medical Students’ Satisfaction from Their Tutor and Their Overall Satisfaction from Clinical Rotations

“…We do not find any correlation with hospital organizations, department facilities, and department heads. Our findings agree with earlier findings showing that tutors matter most in the satisfaction of clinical rotations [11,12]. Our findings are in partial agreement with earlier reports showing that other confounders matter less, such as the department premises (rs = 0.51), the department director (rs = 0.34), and the pedagogical atmosphere (rs = 0.38) [10]), but contrast another report showing that the aforementioned factors matter equally [9].…”

“…The student's satisfaction with the tutor-student relationship has been shown to contribute most to instruction rating [11]. Likewise, most students reported that the rotation was a useful educational experience and that the tutoring coach was one of the most valuable aspects of clinical rotation [12].…”

Clerkship in Infectious Diseases for Medical Students During COVID-19

“…To the Editor —We read with great interest the article by Sigler et al [ 1 ] published recently in this prestigious journal about the evaluation of the infectious disease elective for early clinical medical students in their internal medicine clerkship. This article evaluated self-reported learning and the level of satisfaction with the rotation using a Likert scale.…”