Teaching medical students to prioritize preventive services.

Fam Med · 2006

rct · Level II

Where this comes from

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Clinicians cannot provide all recommended preventive services in a single office visit and must learn to prioritize. This skill is not overtly addressed in medical school. METHODS: We designed a workshop to teach third-year medical students to prioritize preventive services during an office visit. In a prospective controlled trial, we compared performance on a standardized patient case. RESULTS: Students performed well, but there was no significant difference between intervention and control groups' mean scores on the standardized patient encounter. CONCLUSIONS: Our brief intervention failed to increase students' scores on a standardized patient case requiring preventive services prioritization.