Lack of published studies on students' practice behaviour of physical examination skills outside timetabled training sessions inspired this study into what activities medical students undertake to improve their skills and factors influencing this. Six focus groups of a total of 52 students from Years 1-3 using a pre-established interview guide.…

Assessment of clinical skills is a critical element of undergraduate medical education. We compare a traditional approach to procedural skills assessment--the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) with the Integrated Performance Procedural Instrument (IPPI). In both approaches, students work through "stations" or…

The objective of this paper is to draw attention to four features that distinguish the pedagogy of patient interviewing from the teaching of other clinical skills: (a) students are not naive to the skill to be learned, (b) they encounter role models with a wide variability in interviewing styles, (c) clinical teachers are not usually specialists…

Objective: Universally, clerkship grading is diverse and not standardized. The authors' faculty was troubled by the inability to provide meaningful evaluations, as more than 60% of students received the highest grade. Although a psychiatry clerkship mandate of a faculty-observed student clinical interview existed for several years, the majority of…

Presents findings of a survey at the University of Hawaii which studied the admission process of the school which includes a group interview and evaluation of the student. (Author/PG)

The authors synthesize preliminary findings from an interdisciplinary study of the practicum/clinical phase of undergraduate pre-service education in the professions. Early data analysis identified similarities and differences across disciplines in terms of: (a) the terminology describing each practicum program, (b) the programs' key…

A study is described that identified a set of measureable skills, evaluated the effects of a simulated patient program on students' observed interview skills, and tested the ability of trained simulators to evaluate interview skills by comparing simulator ratings and faculty ratings of the same interviews. (MLW)

Medical schools (N=136) were surveyed concerning their use of standardized patients (lay persons trained to replicate a clinical encounter consistently and realistically). Among 16 specific topics covered are breast and pelvic examination, male genitourinary examination, interviewing skills, administration of program, start-up concerns, and…

A study of house officers' performance of a complete medical history assessed interview content, questioning technique, and interview style. Frequent deficiencies included inadequate social, psychiatric, and drug reaction histories and an overly direct style. Use of detailed checklist for student evaluation is recommended to provide feedback and…

Use of a videotape technique to evaluate medical students' ability to observe psychopathology after a psychobiology system course is reported. Performance on this audiovisual examination was found not to be related significantly to any of the other methods of evaluation used in the course or in other courses during the first two years of medical…

The electives program at the University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Medicine was evaluated. The program provides opportunities for learning in community hospitals, physicians' offices and clinics, the main campus of the university, and other health-resources locations in western Missouri. The School of Medicine emphasizes primary care in…

The use of admission interview comments to predict clinical clerkship success of medical students was evaluated. Narrative comments made by admissions interviewers regarding an applicant's skills and attitudes were coded, as were narrative evaluations of these students during year III of required clerkships in pediatrics and internal medicine in…

Describes a study conducted in the United Kingdom to discover what processes learner physiotherapists experience in clinical education and whether their experience is comparable to that of other students in medical professions. The need for feedback is addressed, and the role of the clinical educator is discussed. A form for student assessment is…

Data collected as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation study of residency programs for training in primary medicine and pediatrics are analyzed. The seven residencies supported by the federal government and the nine residencies supported by the Foundation are compared. A brief description of the programs as they existed in 1978 are…