The effect of a clinical clerkship on attitudes of medical students toward anesthesiology.

The study on which this article is based evaluated the effect of a clerkship in anesthesiology on medical students' attitudes toward anesthesiology as a specialty, the role of anesthesiologists as physicians, career choice, and the usefulness of this experience in their learning. Eighty-four participating students filled out questionnaires on the first and the last day of a four-week clerkship. Responses to common questions in the questionnaires administered before and after the clerkship were compared by paired t-test to determine statistical significance. The results suggest that the clerkship (a) significantly improved graduating students' attitudes toward anesthesiologists as physicians and (b) provided a worthwhile clinical experience.