The use of medical journals by medical students. Which medical journals are read?
Algra, A.M.; Dekker, F.W.
Nederlands Tijdschrift Voor Geneeskunde 159: A8850
2015
ISSN/ISBN: 0028-2162 PMID: 25970674 Document Number: 685060
To investigate the role of scientific medical journals in Dutch medical curricula. Descriptive questionnaire study. In 2013, medical students (from year 3 onwards) at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), were invited to respond to an online questionnaire. They were presented with 28 multiple-choice questions and 11 statements about the use of scientific medical journals in the medical curriculum. We calculated the frequencies of the answers per question and analysed differences between medical students using two-by-two tables. The questionnaire was completed by 680 (53.0%) of 1277 invited medical students enrolled at the LUMC. Most of the respondents were those doing clinical rotations (56.6%) and 60.1% had research experience. More than half of the students read at least one scientific journal a few times per month; this percentage was 38.8% among third-year students, 49.3% among fourth-year students, 60.0% among those on clinical rotation, and was higher among students with research experience (63.3%) than among those without research experience (44.1%). Nearly 90% of students agreed with the statement that the development of academic and scientific education should take place in the bachelor's phase of medical school. Medical students start to read scientific medical journals at an early phase in the medical curriculum and this increases further when students start to undertake research projects or go on clinical rotation. Medical curricula should be constructed in such a way that medical students learn to select and interpret research findings adequately for themselves before they turn to articles from scientific medical journals.