Clinical activities during a clerkship rotation in emergency medicine.

Clinical log books were completed by the 1995-1996 clinical clerks at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada, during their 2-wk rotation in emergency medicine. To determine the clinical activities of the students and assess the educational effectiveness of our clerkship program, the information recorded in these log books was compared with the results of a survey of the emergency department (ED) staff physicians. This survey asked the physicians to identify five essential clinical presentations and procedural skills that they felt the clerks must observe during their rotation in the ED. To our knowledge, this is the first Canadian report using log books as a quality assurance tool for a clerkship program in emergency medicine. This study has highlighted specific weaknesses in the clinical activities of the clerks and will serve as a valuable resource for future assessments of the emergency medicine rotation at our institution.