Student learning experiences in an LICC programme are both similar to and different from those in a traditional rotational clerkship programme. Students in the integrated clerkship were clear and unequivocal about the benefits of working with one teacher across time and caring for patients at different stages of the same disease in multiple settings. These findings have implications for clinical education development and design.

This qualitative descriptive study highlights the influence of highly regarded, free choice clerkship elective experiences in the career decision making process in medical education. Further examination of the details of clerkship elective experiences which influence career choice is recommended.

PDA-based patient-encounter logs appear to be effective case documentation and reflection tools. The difference in number of logs between control and intervention groups demonstrates the utility of the PDA for "point-of-care" patient logging.

Printed materials form part of health promotion departments' overall strategy and on the basis of current demand are likely to continue to do this for the foreseeable future. A great deal is known about the most effective ways of communicating through the written word. Readability tests, text and layout design all contribute to improving the way in which information is communicated. This paper uses a case study, which describes the development and pretesting of a leaflet on healthy eating, to demonstrate that it is also important for the written information to reflect the values, language and concerns of the target group.Pretesting is a vital element in the process of developing written information. It is becoming increasingly apparent that the easier to reach groups have largely made significant lifestyle changes, particularly in relation to smoking and eating habits. With high smoking rates and poor diet increasingly concentrated among the lower socioeconomic groups, it is vital that more innovative and effective ways of helping people to change be developed. Research suggests that health education/promotion initiatives must acknowledge and reflect people's needs. Since written materials are central to health education/promotion activities, it is important that this approach be incorporated into their development through careful pretesting. This means that they can be written to be more relevant to and reflect more realistically the values, language and lifestyles of the target group.