Medical Student Experiences With Accessing and Entering Patient Information in Electronic Health Records During the Ob/Gyn Clerkship.

Medical school graduates should be able to enter information from patient encounters and to write orders and prescriptions in the electronic health record. Studies have shown that while students often can access EHRs, some students may receive inadequate preparation for these skills. Greater understanding of student exposure to electronic health records during their obstetrics and gynecology clerkships can help to determine the extent to which students receive the educational experiences that may best prepare them for their future training and practice.
To study medical student reporting of electronic health record use during the obstetrics and gynecology clerkship.
A Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) End-of-Examination Survey about electronic health record use was administered to medical students after they completed the Step 2 Clinical Knowledge component of the United States Medical Licensing Examination. For inpatient and outpatient rotations, students were asked if they accessed a record and if they entered notes or orders into it. Descriptive statistics for a sample of 16,366 medical students who graduated from LCME-accredited schools between 2012 and 2016 summarize student interactions with electronic health records by rotation type and graduation year. Chi-square techniques were used to examine mean differences in access and entry.
The survey had an overall response rate of 70%. In 2016, the majority of survey respondents (94%) accessed electronic health records during their obstetrics and gynecology clerkship, but 26% reported “read-only” access. On the inpatient service, fewer than 10% of students reported any order entry, 58% reported entering progress notes, and 47% reported entering an admitting history and physical.
Medical school graduates entering obstetrics and gynecology residencies are expected to be competent in documenting clinical encounters and entering orders, including those that are unique to obstetrics and gynecology. This study shows that some students may receive less experience with entering information into electronic health records during their obstetrics and gynecology clerkships than others, which could result in unequal levels of preparedness for graduate medical education.

Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Inc.