What do they do after class?

extra curriculum activities of medical students of ribeirão preto-University of São Paulo

Abstract

In 1999 the Special Training Programme of the Medical School of Ribeirão Preto conducted a study with 326 undergraduate students from the first to the fourth grade aiming to identify and describe their extra curriculum activities. In 2002 the study was repeated administering the same questionnaire among 360 students. It is, therefore, a cross-seccional study in which the variables are age, sex, grade of course, extra curriculum activities linked to the school, reasons for these activities, weekly hours spent with them, satisfaction levels and reasons for satisfaction or dissatisfaction. From the total of interviewees 64% are male and 36% female, the median age found was 20,7 years old and only 8% (29) of students are not enrolled in any extra curriculum activity at the time of the interview. Belonging to a study group named “leagues” (73%), practicing some sport (53%), developing research (31,5%) or voluntary medical night calls (31%) are amongst the most popular actitivies. Among the activities not linked to the school most students reported to study a foreign language (36%), music or theatre (24,5%). Most of them reported spending at least five hours per week with some of these activivies. Greater number of activities were found associated to higher grade at medical school (p=0,002) despite the increase of time in class. Although there were not found great differences among the students interviewed in 1999 and 2002, there was a significant increase of participation in “leagues” since new of them were created during this time.