CLERKSHIP;

Objectives: To assess the clerkship experiences and self-perceived competence of Undergraduate medical students in clinical and procedural skills at Bolan Medical College, Quetta, Balochistan. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Bolan Medical College, Quetta, Balochistan. Period: February 2016 to August 2016. Methodology: Undergraduate medical Students of 2nd, 3rd and final profession MBBS at Bolan Medical College, Quetta.Multistage stratified random sampling method was used; making a total sample size of 166. A self-administered questionnaire was used with item responses based on 4-point Likert Scale for the number of times a clinical skill was performed and 3-point Likert scale for the number of times a clinical skill competence was perceived by the performer respectively. The questionnaire contains mainly three parts. The first part mainly contained information on socio demographic data like age, gender, monthly income, marital status; student’s year of study and completed clinical clerkship. The second part contained information regarding clinical and procedural skills that is physical skills examination and the third part includes information about the number of times a clinical skill is performed and the competence achieved or not by the participant. SPSS version 16 was used to carry out the statistical analysis. Results: Among nine listed basic physical examination skills, both 2nd and 3rdproff students were having low exposure or experience i.e< 50% have performed the skills at least two times and among 12 listed procedural skills only 4thproff (final year) students were having high level of experience i.e ≥ 70% have performed the skills. Among 9 listed basic physical examination skills, only 4thproff (final year) students were having high level of competence i.e ≥ 70% reported to be very confident. Similarly among 12 listed procedural skills the 4thproff (final year) students were having high level of competence i.e ≥ 70% reported to be very confident. There was a strong positive linear correlation between level of exposure and self-perceived competence (r=0.92). Conclusion: The level of performing the basic physical skills and clinical procedures was low for majority of the variables. However, on several occasions an important clear connection was appeared performing physical skills and practical course of action and confidence level of students.