Development of Patient-Oriented Participatory Clinical Clerkship

Showa University School of Pharmacy and Showa University Hospital introduced a“patient-oriented participatory clerkship”in 2006 and since then it has been further developed and improved by the Hospital Clerkship Development Working Group.As examples of its practical and novel approach,we included individual patient management training in the program and developed original keywords and clerkship evaluation scales,which were first used to evaluate the usefulness of the 2008 clerkship for fourth grade students.Our analysis of the clerkship showed that it had a positive effect on students’learning,and that they were able to complete it with satisfactory grades and a sense of personal satisfaction.The original keywords and evaluation scale proved to be useful and were highly evaluated by preceptors.However,preceptors were short of time for instructing the students and some felt a lack of ability to teach under the new clerkship.These problems will be urgently addressed,the first by rescheduling and extending the hours of the clerkship in the six-year program and the second by implementing a teacher quality improvement program.