The effect of a checklist on medical students' exposures to practical skills.

The effect is evaluated of a checklist exploring acquisition of practical skills by medical students during the first clinical course in internal medicine. A group of forty-five students using the checklist was compared with two reference groups doing their clerkship before and after the study group. The amount of exposure to practical procedures increased by about 30%. At the same time exposure to some simpler procedures was reduced, while there was an increase in exposures to more complicated procedures. The conclusion is that a checklist has potential value for increasing exposure to practical procedures, if given with advice about the procedures to be preferred and by demand for mastery of particular skills.