"Does self-reported clinical experience predict performance in medical school?"

[flatearth22]

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22239331

Our results suggest that applicants who self-report previous clinical experience may not be better candidates. In fact, on some measures of performance, these applicants may actually perform worse than those who report no clinical experience.

Couldn't fit in "and internship" so I cut it off

 

[Soulstice]

"However, on the cumulative medical school GPA outcome, applicants who reported previous clinical experience had statistically significantly lower cumulative GPAs upon graduation than those who did not report such experience."

Duh? People who took time out of their education to pursue other extracurricular activities should, intuitively, have mild GPA hits because they did something else other than just studying and accumulating grades all day. Maybe these students are worse off GPA-wise for their clinical experience, but then who's to say the intangibles of clinical experience haven't made (non-quantitatively measurable) improvements on their abilities?

 

[chronicidal]

Is it weird that the correlation coefficient between undergrad GPA and step 1 is only 0.14, whereas others studies have found correlations greater than 0.5?

 

[StoicJosher]

five outcomes: cumulative medical school grade point average (GPA); US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 and 2 scores, and scores on a validated programme director's evaluation measuring intern expertise and professionalism.

We then conducted a series of analyses of covariance to compare outcomes in applicants who self-reported previous clinical experience with outcomes in those who did not. In these analyses, the independent variable was self-reported clinical experience (yes/no), the covariate was undergraduate GPA, and the dependent variables were the five performance outcomes.

Results  In four of five analyses, we found no differences in the performance of the two groups (clinical experience versus no clinical experience). However, on the cumulative medical school GPA outcome, applicants who reported previous clinical experience had statistically significantly lower cumulative GPAs upon graduation than those who did not report such experiencee

Makes sense. People who don't have the numbers needed to get lots of clinical experience to pad their resume to be competitive.

 

[flatearth22]

"However, on the cumulative medical school GPA outcome, applicants who reported previous clinical experience had statistically significantly lower cumulative GPAs upon graduation than those who did not report such experience."

Duh? People who took time out of their education to pursue other extracurricular activities should, intuitively, have mild GPA hits because they did something else other than just studying and accumulating grades all day. Maybe these students are worse off GPA-wise for their clinical experience, but then who's to say the intangibles of clinical experience haven't made (non-quantitatively measurable) improvements on their abilities?

But it talks about GPA over all 4 years. Shouldn't students with previous clinical experience have an edge over other students during clinical rotations and electives in 3rd and 4th year?

 

[mauberley]

But it talks about GPA over all 4 years. Shouldn't students with previous clinical experience have an edge over other students during clinical rotations and electives in 3rd and 4th year?

Define "previous clinical experience."

 

[music2doc]

I have to wonder how they are defining "clinical experience" is this study. Are they simply using AMCAS' ridiculously liberal definition? If so, there's your answer as to why it has no statistically significant correlation. IF, on the other hand, they are using a more strict definition, then this would be surprising. Since many premeds do towel folding, stocking, and getting patients water and warm blankets in the ER as their "clinical experience" it is absolutely no surprise this has little to no impact on their eventual clinical abilities as M3s.

This would be akin to having your kid wash your car twice per week every week (rain, shine, or snow) from age 12 through 15 and then expecting him to be a better driver than another kid who didn't do this every day! On the other hand, if one kid had competitively raced go carts every week from age 12 through 15 for 4 hours/wk, we would anticipate his driving abilities at age 16 would be at least slightly better than the next kid. (Of course, he might also be overconfident and make mistakes as a result.... As might the M3 who was previously an EMT-B/I, MA or CNA/LPN with work experience.)

 

[AllDaWEI]

I have to wonder how they are defining "clinical experience" is this study. Are they simply using AMCAS' ridiculously liberal definition? If so, there's your answer as to why it has no statistically significant correlation. IF, on the other hand, they are using a more strict definition, then this would be surprising. Since many premeds do towel folding, stocking, and getting patients water and warm blankets in the ER as their "clinical experience" it is absolutely no surprise this has little to no impact on their eventual clinical abilities as M3s.

This would be akin to having your kid wash your car twice per week every week (rain, shine, or snow) from age 12 through 15 and then expecting him to be a better driver than another kid who didn't do this every day! On the other hand, if one kid had competitively raced go carts every week from age 12 through 15 for 4 hours/wk, we would anticipate his driving abilities at age 16 would be at least slightly better than the next kid. (Of course, he might also be overconfident and make mistakes as a result.... As might the M3 who was previously an EMT-B/I, MA or CNA/LPN with work experience.)

👍

It seems like all the volunteers in the ER aren't getting quite the experience they should.

This form of clinical volunteering is subject to diminishing returns, and so is shadowing to an extent. A month or two of these will probably be sufficient, but pre-meds have raised the bar to the point where hundreds of hours and many years are "required." It is possible that this may negatively affect the GPA and even MCAT.

 

[235788]

"However, on the cumulative medical school GPA outcome, applicants who reported previous clinical experience had statistically significantly lower cumulative GPAs upon graduation than those who did not report such experience."

Duh? People who took time out of their education to pursue other extracurricular activities should, intuitively, have mild GPA hits because they did something else other than just studying and accumulating grades all day. Maybe these students are worse off GPA-wise for their clinical experience, but then who's to say the intangibles of clinical experience haven't made (non-quantitatively measurable) improvements on their abilities?

Well in my case I learned little that wasn't common sense or learned elsewhere. Nothing that would improve my "abilities" - and i did do a boat load of volunteering and shadowing.