Different formats for a neurology clerkship do not influence written examination scores.

Objective: Changes in health care delivery required substitution of a number of alternatives for the traditional inpatient clerkship used in the neurology education of fourth-year medical students at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and for third-year medical students from Georgetown University.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed grades on a locally generated multiple-choice examination based on a student objective list. Scores from students rotating on ambulatory neurology, neurosurgery, child neurology, neurorehabilitation, and rotations at other military hospitals over a 2-year period were compared with those achieved by students in a traditional clerkship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Results: There were no significant differences in the grades between any of the groups.

Conclusions: Student acquisition of factual material was not influenced by the type of clinical experience or by whether the student is in the third or fourth year of medical school.