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PURPOSE: To investigate whether repeated exposure to simulated clinical cases, as employed in problem-based learning (PBL), accelerates the development of clinical expertise in veterinary students. METHOD: In 1995 all 122 second-year students at the Texas A the data were then analyzed with and without the six groups included, and compared. The ANOVA yielded a significant result for all 24 groups (F(3,69) = 2.75, p = .0491) and for the 18 groups that performed physical examinations in all four cases (F(3,51) = 3.03, p = .0377). Significant linear contrasts were also found for all 24 groups (F(1,69) = 7.21, p = .009) and for the 18 groups (F(1,51) = 4.25, p = .044). Improvement in diagnostic efficiency could not be correlated with GPAs and was only somewhat correlated with the total amount of prior clinical experience reported by the students. CONCLUSION: Study findings suggest that there is a significant relationship between the repeated use of case simulations in PBL and the accelerated development of clinical expertise.
C C Farnsworth (Sun,) studied this question.