Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Apr 19;11(2):77-83.
doi: 10.4103/ajm.ajm_202_20. eCollection 2021 Apr-Jun.

Internship orientation: An essential facilitatory bridging step for medical students

Rajesh Kathrotia  1 , Farhanul Huda  2 , Shalinee Rao  3 , Anupama Bahadur  4 , Ravi Kant  5 , Manisha Naithani  6
Affiliations

Internship orientation: An essential facilitatory bridging step for medical students

Rajesh Kathrotia et al. Avicenna J Med. .

Abstract

Background: Internship is a facilitatory period that hones skills and helps in the evolution of a qualified medical student to a competent doctor. The feeling of a final year student joining as a fresh intern after successfully completing the final professional examination will be directionless without a bridging initiative through a buffer program. Fresh interns need to be oriented to the fundamentals of working effectively with a patient as a whole and not as a separate discipline. This study was done to evaluate the effectiveness of the internship orientation program and to assess the feedback of participants about this program.

Methodology: This was a study conducted on 235 freshly joined medical interns. The process included evaluation of a well-structured seven-day orientation program by prevalidated structured Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) and feedback.

Results: All interns performed satisfactorily in the post-test with a mean score of 74.13 ± 7.18. Post-test scores were highest for procedure skills and communication skills, including medical ethics. Overall, 232 (99%) of interns responded that the program was useful and it successfully enhanced their clinical skills; 221 (94%) of interns expressed that the content of the program was excellent to good; and 228 (97%) of interns felt that the method used for training was appropriate. Interns also documented that there were a few new skills that were acquired by attending this program.

Conclusion: There is an unmet need for an internship orientation program across all medical colleges to lay a strong foundation for naive interns. Based on the results, we recommend an internship orientation program for a smooth and swift transition from that of a medical student to professional life. It will orient the interns and lay the foundation for the next level of assignment in building their professional career.

Keywords: Internship orientation program; medical interns; skills; transition.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

There are no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of topics in the post-test
Figure 2
Figure 2
Histogram showing the frequency of total scores in post-test
Figure 3
Figure 3
Pretest and post-test scores for training on occupational hazard (n = 232)
Figure 4
Figure 4
Pretest and post-test scores for training on hand hygiene and BMW management (n = 232)
Figure 5
Figure 5
Most useful sessions according to interns during orientation program
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. McKenzie S, Mellis C. The impact on internship of a tailored intern preparation package. Adv Med Educ Pract. 2018;9:639–48. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Burford B, Whittle V, Vance GH. The relationship between medical student learning opportunities and preparedness for practice: A questionnaire study. BMC Med Educ. 2014;14:223. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Laack TA, Newman JS, Goyal DG, Torsher LC. A 1-week simulated internship course helps prepare medical students for transition to residency. Simul Healthc. 2010;5:127–32. - PubMed
    1. Durgawale PM, Durgawale PP. Medical education: Our current concern. Indian J Community Med. 2006;31:121–2.
    1. Hannon FB. A national medical education needs’ assessment of interns and the development of an intern education and training programme. Med Educ. 2000;34:275–84. - PubMed