The Opinions of Medical Interns about the Acquired Basic Clinical Skills

Establishing centers for clinical skills training in medical schools with the purpose of improving students’ ability in practical skills has provided an adequate environment for practicing in an experimental setting and consequently can be effective in decreasing the rate of probable mistakes in real situations. The aim of this study was to determine the opinions of interns in Kerman University of Medical Sciences about the rate and sources of acquired basic clinical skills through self- evaluation. All available interns of Kerman School of Medicine (including 120 ones) who had passed the clinical skills course participated in this cross- sectional study in 2004. Data were gathered by an investigator- made questionnaire and analyzed by using t-test and ANOVA. Based on the results, most of the respondents (90.8%) believed in the necessity of a specific course as clinical skills in medical education program. In regard to the rate of acquired skills, “vital signs measurement”, “nasogastric tube insertion” and “patient communication skills” got the highest mean scores (18.35, 17.76 and 17.3 respectively) in interns’ self-evaluation, while the lowest mean scores belonged to “cauterization”, “intubation” and “using surgical set” (9.09, 12.84 and 14.11 respectively). The percent of self-evaluation total score was 76.7%. In regard to the source of acquiring clinical skills, “clinical skills center” (41%), “self- learning” (29%) and “professors and others” (27%) obtained the highest percents respectively. Considering the low self- evaluation scores in some skills and the highest percent for clinical skills center as source of acquiring clinical skills, improving the quality of training in this center and expanding its activities are necessary.