Final Year Medical Student Intern-Shadowing: More Interns Prefer It

Background UCD has delivered a Professional Completion Module (PCM) for final year medical students (Final Med) since 2009, incorporating sub-internship (intern shadowing) and practical instruction in relevant intern tasks/knowledge base. We sought to compare its impact on current UCD-trained interns versus those trained elsewhere. METHODS A questionnaire was designed, tested for inter-rater reliability in a subsample, and then administered to current interns in two large Dublin teaching hospitals. RESULTS A total of 32 UCD-trained interns and 11 non-UCD-trained interns completed the questionnaire. The questionnaire exhibited good inter-rater reliability. Significantly more UCD (n=30, 94%) than non-UCD trained interns (n=7, 64%) felt they had, during their medical degree course, undertaken a structured period of time where the sole commitment was to spend several hours a day “shadowing” a designated intern, so as to observe their day to day work (Fishers exact p=0.0126). Among the UCD trained cohort, there was a good recollection of the correct amount of weeks spent in this form of sub-internship i.e. 2 weeks (29 interns, 91%), supporting a contention that this period of time was somehow memorable. Fewer UCD trained interns recognised that they had completed a course in practical issues and tasks as part of PCM, suggesting it was less memorable (22 interns, 69%). During this Final Med period, more UCD (32 interns, 100%) than non-UCD trained interns (7 interns, 64%) had performed a clinical skills procedure, such as taking bloods or inserting an IV cannula or obtaining an ECG (Fishers exact p=0.003). For the two combined intern groups, the highest average usefulness score (out of 10) for each of five options for preparing a prospective intern for the practical day-to-day tasks they will face as an intern, was awarded to the option of spending time in Final Med as a “sub-intern” (7.2/10; 4.1/5 for UCD trained interns, 3.1/5 for non-UCD). The lowest average usefulness score was for the option of practical teaching delivered earlier than Final Med (5.2/10; 2.4/5 for UCD, 2.8/5 for nonUCD trained interns). CONCLUSION According to current Dublin interns, intern-shadowing is the most useful option for preparing Final Meds for internship.