Problem statement: Residency programs have changed to comply with resident duty hour regulations. This study's purpose was to determine if there are differences in medicine clerkship students' activities, associations, and perceptions of educational value before and after duty hour reform.
Method: Medicine clerkship students, both before (n = 36) and after (n = 33) duty hour reform, wore random reminder pagers for one week and completed time allocation surveys with each signal. Event proportions were calculated and analysis of variance assessed group differences.
Results: A total of 804 and 912 surveys were completed before and after reform, respectively. No differences existed in proportion of time for direct patient care (.13 versus.14, p =.35), indirect patient care (.35 versus.32, p =.21), and education (.38 versus.37, p =.69) activities, students' associations, educational value, and time in the hospital before and after reform.
Conclusions: Residency program changes had minimal impact on medicine clerkship students.