Introduction:

Clinical aptitude (ClAp) is essential in medical interns' (MI) during their undergraduate internship. Its evaluation is indispensable.

Aim:

To compare the final clinical aptitude of MI in various hospital settings.

Method:

Medical Interns (MI) in natural groups who completed their undergraduate internship (UI) in five different hospitals. Seventy (70) MI were studied in a sample obtained in a census. A valid and consistent (KR: 0.77) final instrument was applied at the end of the UI and included 30 clinical cases (CC) and five indicators: risk factors (RF), diagnosis (DX), paraclinicals (PCL), treatment (Tx) and prognosis (PRN), encompassing internal medicine (IM), pediatrics (PED), family medicine (FM), emergency medicine (EM), general surgery (GS) and obstetrics-gynecology (OG). There were 75 items per module, totaling 450. We requested data on the MI grade average and university of origin. Incomplete or inadequately completed surveys were excluded. Non-parametric statistics: to compare every module's medians and that of every rotation (Kruskal-Wallis). Hospitals were compared (Mann-Whitney U test). The average university grade was correlated with the overall median (Spearman). Answers were determined randomly.

Results:

There was no correlation between the university grade averages and the overall medians. A low ClAp was detected in the hospital settings (Median: 177/450). There were significant differences in favor of Gì and G5 in almost all modules and indicators vs. G4. The highest medians were obtained in EM (50/75) and FM (43/75) while the lowest were in O-G (5/75). Results were NS in RF and PCL. The highest values were observed in PRN (48%), followed by DX (41%) and TX (33%). Comparisons between universities were NS in IM, GS, RF, PCL and PRN. Results were low in acute appendicitis, labor, preeclampsia and pyelonephritis.

Comments:

ClAp was found to be lacking. A stricter following of the MI's development is warranted.