Evaluating continuity and comprehensiveness of care in an elective family practice clerkship.

The University of Wisconsin Medical School has operated an intensive, elective, three-month family practice clerkship since 1980. Beginning in 1981, a computerized, sampling instrument has been used to generate measures of the continuity and comprehensiveness of care being learned by the students and the clinical content of the students' experience. This tool has proved useful for motivating students and faculty members to concentrate on the factors of continuity and comprehensiveness in the clerkship experience. The data collected regarding the students' activities are presented here.