Purpose: Although the importance of bedside teaching is generally recognized, there is no published report on the actual experience or effects of bedside teaching in Korea. We aimed to study the effects and share the experience of bedside teaching during a clerkship in pulmonary medicine.
Methods: Bedside teaching was administered to 120 students through Year 3. To evaluate the improvement in clinical performance as a result of bedside teaching, students took the clinical performance examination (CPX) pre- and post-clerkship. They also completed a questionnaire about their perception of self-competence with regard to clinical performance. We analyzed the CPX scores and questionnaires.
Results: After introducing bedside teaching, CPX score on the pulmonary case increased from 48.9 to 60.1 between pre- and post-clerkship, respectively (p<0.001). Students had higher self-assessments of competency on the CPX, and their satisfaction with the clerkship increased.
Conclusion: This study demonstrates that bedside teaching is effective in improving the clinical performance of medical students.
Keywords: Clinical clerkship; Clinical competence; Medical education; Teaching.