Assessing clinical experience in a residency training program

Training programs are expected to provide experience to residents and students such that a reasonable spectrum of diseases and severity of illness are encountered. One approach is to have the resident or student keep a record of the cases encountered. A clinical experience is much more than the patients completely evaluated and treated by the resident or student. We propose a program approach in which all patients admitted to the medical service are categorized by several standard methods. This study describes an evaluation of a patient population seen by medical residents and students with specific demographic information and the spectrum and severity of their diseases. The numbers of patients and the severity of illness of the patients cared for during the ward experience affect the educational value of the program. This type of information has implications for the evaluation and design of training programs.