Conjoint analysis was used to assess resident preference for teaching hospitals that offer postgraduate clinical training programs. Data for the analysis were collected from 46 clinical residents who participated in an emergency room seminar held in July 2005. Categories that received high utility scores in the attributes of teaching hospitals were “hospital has a renowned teaching doctor”, “hospital is partnered with overseas institutions”, “conferences/study sessions are held more than 8 times per month”, “bedside teaching takes place daily”, “a monthly salary of 500, 000 yen”, “80 working hours per week”, “the hospital is located in a nearby city”, and “the hospital is not affiliated with a university” . Conjoint analysis is a useful analytical method for developing education systems and programs, as it can predict the degree of change in resident preference made by improving these categories.

1)The factors Japanese residents consider most important in postgraduate clinical training are: "relationship with supervising physicians," "well-developed training programs," and "guidance of supervising physicians."2)Items showing a large discrepancy between their importance to residents and residents' satisfaction were: "well-developed training program," "experiencing a large number of cases,""guidance of supervising physicians," and "guidance of senior residents."3)Multiple regression analysis showed that factors significantly influencing residents' satisfaction with training were "quality of the medical service" (r=0.59) and "consideration for accepted residents" (r=0.42).

A self-reporting questionnaire was designed and sent to our Jichi Medical School graduates each year since 1980, in order to investigate clinical competence. The format was designed based on several major reports concerning postgraduate clinical training in primary medical care. We found that more than 70% of Jichi Medical School graduates trained in the multi-specialty rotation style in general hospitals that were certified by the Ministry of Health and Welfare. Our results also suggested that these graduates obtained a relatively high level of clinical competence in performing physical examinations, basic laboratory testing, clinical procedures, and various treatments.

A self-reporting questionnaire was designed and sent to our Jichi Medical School graduates each year since 1980, in order to investigate clinical competences attained in certain technical items. The responses from graduates of classes 1984 through 1987 were analysed, and the questionnaire was found to be highly reliable and moderately valid. The coefficient variable was 0.942, and the relevant variable was 0.934 using the half-split method. The content was clear, because items in the questionnaire were selected from published official reports. In the construction validity, 4 meaningful groups of items were found by factor-analysis. Yearly analysis using such a questionnaire may clarify some of the problems experienced by trainees and training hospitals, and would encourage the trainees to undergo a process of selfevaluation.