Effect of Ambulatory Medicine Tutorial on Clinical Performance of 5th year Medical Students
Pochamana Phisalprapa MD*, Denla Pandejpong MD*
Affiliation : * Division of Ambulatory Medicine, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
Background and
Objective : The present study provided a group learning activity called “Ambulatory Medicine Tutorial-
AMT” for 5th year medical students in order to facilitatelearning experience at ambulatory setting and to improve medical
students’ clinical performance. This research aimed specifically to study the effect of AMT.
Material and Method: Two groups of twenty 5th-year medical students were enrolled during their ambulatory medicine
blocks. Each medical student was assigned to have 8 ambulatory sessions. AMT was assigned to one group while the other
group only used conventional learning activity. At the end of the present study, total internal medicine scores, patient
satisfaction surveys, and data on average time spent on each clinical encounter were collected and compared.
Results : The AMT group received ahigher total internal medicine score as compared to the conventional group (76.2 + 3.6
vs. 72.9 + 2.8, p = 0.003). The AMT group could reduce average time spent on each clinical encounter within their first-6
ambulatory sessions while the conventional group could acquire the same skill later in their last 2 ambulatory sessions. There
was no significant difference found on comparing patient satisfaction scores between the 2 groups.
Conclusion : AMT helped improving medical students’ outcomes as shown from higher total internal medicine score as well
as quicker improvement during real-life clinical encounters, AMT could be a good alternative learning activity for medical
students at ambulatory setting.
Keywords : Ambulatory Medicine Tutorial (AMT), Clinical performance, Medical students
