O ensino de iniciação científi ca no curso de graduação em medicina. The education of scientifi c initiation in the course of graduation.

In the year 2000 it was fi rst introduced the subjects known at Scientifi c Iniciation (SI) at the graduation course of Medicine in UNIRIO University. Scientifi c Iniciation I was created whith the main purpose of making the students able to read scientifi c paperwork with a critical view as well as providing basic computer knowledge. Periodically, SI I is reevaluated for better suiting the subject's purposes. The aim of this paper was to evaluate whether the methodology used in SI I has brought actual benefi ts for the students. Methodology: a cross-sectional survey in witch 131 students were tested with questions related to the subject content. Among the 131 students, 53 were from the second grade (had just fi nished SI I and elaborated research projects), 43 were from the seventh grade (had fi nished SI I 3 years ago and did not elaborate research projects) and 35 were form internship (old curriculum - did not inculde SI). Results: there were 74 females and 57 males whith mean age of 22.15±2.34 years. Based on numbers of right answers, students of the second grade had a best perfor- mance when compared to the upper grades (p<0.001), while there was no signifi cant diff erence between seventh grade and internship (p=0.497). Conclusion: we conclude that Scientifi c Iniciation is actually contributing for increasing medical knowlegde; however, it is still necessary to provide changes in order to consolidate information during medical course.