Comparing academic performance of medical students in distributed learning sites: the McMaster experience

Abstract

Background: In 2004, the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, developed the McMaster Community and Rural Education program (Mac-CARE), to coordinate core rotations for undergraduate and post-graduate medical learners in communities in Southern Ontario.Aims: The purpose of this study is to compare the academic performance of medical clerks learning at distributed sites to students who remained in Hamilton using four measures of academic performance.Methods: Progress test, OSCE, clerkship scores, and pre-clerkship tutorial-based evaluations were collected and Mac-CARE students were compared to non-Mac-CARE students on each performance measure using ANOVA.Results: Outcomes are based on the first cohort to engage in Mac-CARE rotations. There were no statistically significant differences in academic performance between the 2 groups before the intervention rotation (pre-clerkship and clerkship evaluations, progress tests, or an inaugural OSCE). Mac-CARE students, however, scored higher on their post-clerkship OSCE than did non-Mac-CARE students.Conclusion: This study has shown that academic performance among students was at least comparable across all learning sites. To our knowledge, this is the first such study to be published within a Canadian context.