[Evaluation of the establishment of a clinical pediatrics program for the students of 6th year of medicine at the University Hospital of the Universidade de São Paulo].

The authors present an educational investigation performed with students of the 6th year of the University of São Paulo Medical School. The results of the diagnostic evaluation employed with the fifth grade students in 1984 defining the target-population of the future course; the results of the questionnaire used with the assistants of, the teaching body of the course. The formulation of the terminal objectives of the course and the results of its operation during 1985, are presented. To proceed to the analysis of the results, tests on the program syllabus were applied at the beginning and end of the training period, which are compared in the global sense and according to subjects of the program. A statistical analysis was carried out, by non-parametric tests of Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney to check the significance of the percentual yield (difference in performance before and after the training period). The result was that at the end of the course most of the students had achieved a satisfactory degree of improvement (higher than 75%). However, the percentual yield was contrariwise proportional to the performance of the students in the pre-evaluation, showing a homogenization of the students at the end of the training period. Among the subjects evaluated, the hydroelectrolytic balance was the one to present a smaller percentual profit for most of the students, without the occurrence of a significative variation of the performance, when compared before and after the course. No difference either was noticed among the groups of students stratified by area of option for medical residence.