Preparing New Doctors for Clinical Practice: An Evaluation of Pre-Internship Training

Abstract

A consistent finding in the literature is that newly graduated medical students often do not possess the basic skills required to perform their job. Training designed to prepare newly graduated medical students for internship was developed and delivered to 106 newly graduated medical students. Feedback on the course was obtained using anonymous pre- and post-course questionnaires. A total of 32 students (52.5% of the pre-course respondents) felt that they were prepared prior to the training, compared with 51 students (79.7% of the post-course respondents) who felt prepared for internship after the training. The largest effect size of the training was for the administration of medication (Cohen s d= 0.93). Further development to the training programme is required. Nevertheless, it is suggested that this course could serve as a model to address the unsatisfactory levels of preparedness for the work of a junior doctor reported by medical students from many countries.