Influence of clinical internship on competency of medical students

Objective To explore the influence of undergraduate medical students internship on competency and conduct a survey about internship-plan satisfaction. Methods All students who were major in clinical medicine were asked to fill a test and a questionnaire before and after their internship, which reflects students’ competency and contains 7 parts, including clinical skills, medical knowledge, clinical communication skills, professional responsibility, team work, literature-searching and scientific research ability. At the same time, an internship satisfaction questionnaire was required to be filled by every student. The same questionnaire was required to be filled by teachers at last. Results After internship study, clinical skills, clinical communication skills, professional responsibility and team work were improved significantly, while medical knowledge was controversial, literature-searching and scientific research ability were not improved. 63.9% (23/36)students were satisfied with internship plan, while the rest were not. Conclusions Undergraduate medical students improve their competency during the internship, however, there are some limitations need to be noted, especially, scientific research ability. Internship plan should be modified to get the goal for improving competency as well as students’ satisfaction. Key words: Clinical medicine program; Medical students; Internship; Competency; Influence