Student clinical experiences in family medicine: a comparison of clerkships and preceptorships.

Clerkships and preceptorships represent the two major clinical experiences in predoctoral family medicine education. Data was collected from 154 of 211 third year students from Jefferson Medical College during their required family medicine clerkship (residency-based), and compared with similar data from 12 of 20 senior Jefferson students on their elective family medicine preceptorships (private office based) (1984-85). Students on clerkships had fewer patient encounters than on preceptorships (127.6 vs. 320.0 per six week rotation). In addition, clerkship students saw more patients with trauma, vaginitis, and hypertension, although preceptorship students saw more patients with health maintenance, arteriosclerotic problems, lower respiratory infections, and dermatologic problems. These results suggest that medical students should be encouraged to participate in both a third year clerkship and a senior preceptorship, because they represent different and complimentary clinical experiences in family medicine.