The Effect of Family Medicine Clerkship on the Preference for Family Medicine as a Career Choice in Third-year Medical Students

Park, Hoonki

Abstract

BACKGROUNG: Family medicine clerkship gives undergraduate medical students the opportunity to integrate knowledge and skills taught in class. Impression from clerkship experience and preceptor's role model allow medical students to consider family medicine as a career choice. This study investigated the effect of family medicine clerkship on the preference for family medicine as a career choice in third-year medical students.
METHODS
From July through December of 1995, one hundred third-year medical students attended family medicine clerkship at Hanyang University Medical School (HUMS). They were divided into 20 groups of 4~6 students. Seven half-days of clerkship teaching were provided in a private family medicine clinic and 2 half-days, in an university hospital family medicine clinic. The score of preference for family medicine was measured using the 10 cm visual analogue scale.
RESULTS
The subjects' mean age was 24.1 years. Eighty eighty percent of students were males. The mean score of preference for family medicine as a career choice were 3.2 for pre-clerkship, 6.9 for post-clerkship, and 7.0 at the end of third-year semester exam, respectively. The group preference score was different among groups. Sex, age, hometown, parents' occupation, inhabitation type, religion, and lecture exam score were not related to the preference score. Eleven percent of students hoped to specialize in family medicine in the future. The students' main conception of family medicine were 'primary care', and 'comprehensive care', in descending order.
CONCLUSION
Third-year family medicine clinical clerkship improved the students' preference for family medicine as a career choice. A continuous program needs to be developed to render positive effect into the final stage of resident selection.