Modified organized ophthalmology pre-internship in China

BACKGROUND: Medical pre-internship plays a crucial role in medical education promoting early involvement of students in clinical setting and helping them explore potential interest of specialty. However, there is currently no specifically designed pre-internship curriculum in China. Using ophthalmology as a pilot field, we have set up a modified organized pre-internship curriculum and evaluated its effectiveness and students’ feedback in this study. METHODS: In this prospective noncomparative study, 42 junior undergraduate medical students were enrolled in the organized ophthalmology pre-internship. The effects of organized pre-internship on student performance were evaluated by difference of post- to pre-lecture scores by paired t-test. The effects of baseline knowledge level and gender on performance improvement were analyzed by independent t-test. Student satisfaction comparing organized pre-internship with traditional pre-internship was measured by questionnaire. RESULTS: The difference of post- to pre-lecture scores of all participants was 6.21±2.02 (P<0.0001). The improvement in post- to pre-lecture scores of students with low knowledge level (7.08±1.85) was significantly higher than that of students with high knowledge level (4.81±1.42) (P<0.0001). Gender did not influence student performance. The responses to the questionnaire showed that most of students were more satisfied with the organized pre-internship than traditional pre-internship. CONCLUSIONS: The organized pre-internship significantly improved student performance and satisfaction. Performance improvement in students with low knowledge level was more obvious. Compared to traditional pre-internship, the organized pre-internship showed advantages in improving student performance as well as promoting learning enthusiasm. Instructors played an essential role in the organized pre-internship teaching system.