Dedicated core clerkship in radiology for medical students development, implementation, evaluation, and comparison with distributed clerkship

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The authors performed this study to develop, implement, and evaluate a dedicated core clerkship in radiology for the required clinical clerkship year of medical school, and to compare it with the distributed core clerkship that it replaced. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A dedicated 5-day clerkship was added to the clinical core year of medical school. The course offered a variety of learning experiences, including lectures, clinical observation, case discussions, and a team project. Learner achievement was measured by posttest and compared with a control group. Student satisfaction was determined by structured and unstructured surveys. Faculty comment was elicited by survey, and administrative staff perspective was established through interviews. The evaluation of the dedicated clerkship was compared with the distributed clerkship along the dimensions of learner achievement, student satisfaction, faculty comment, and administrative staff perspective. RESULTS: The dedicated clerkship was developed and implemented successfully. Compared with the distributed clerkship, there was no significant difference in learner achievement or student satisfaction for the dedicated clerkship, but the dedicated clerkship was easier to conduct for faculty and administrative staff. CONCLUSION: The dedicated clerkship was advantageous for faculty and administrative staff, whereas maintaining a comparable level of learner achievement and student satisfaction as the distributed clerkship.