One step towards expertise: the role of the attachment period in general practice.

The aim of this study was to examine the development of students' self-evaluated expertise. A questionnaire was administered, consisting of a scale for rating oneself from novice to expert, and the Inventory of General Study Orientations. The setting was a pre-graduate clinical training period in general practice. The third-year medical students involved responded to the questionnaires immediately before and after the period and also 6 months later. In terms of development of self-evaluated expertise, the students with the most anxious orientation towards their studies benefited most from the period.