Impact of a standardized patient intervention to teach breast and abdominal examination skills to third-year medical students at two institutions.
BACKGROUND
This study examined whether a single intervention with standardized patients (SPs) as a supplement to traditional teaching during the surgery clerkship would enhance the breast and abdominal examination skills of third-year medical students.


METHODS
During the academic year 1994-1995, 153 students from two institutions were assigned to control or experimental groups. At institution A, all students underwent pretests and posttests with SPs; at institution B, no pretest was conducted. All experimental students received group and one-to-one instruction with SPs during the intervention session.


RESULTS
At posttest, the experimental group performed better than the control group on breast examination (P = 0.002), professionalism during this examination (P <0.001), abdominal examination (P <0.001), and professionalism during the latter examination (P = 0.050). The improvement from pretest to posttest at institution A was significantly greater in the experimental group than the control group for the breast examination (P = 0.036) and the abdominal examination (P <0.001). Analyses on a variety of specific tasks within each examination were also performed.


CONCLUSIONS
A single intervention with SPs teaching breast and abdominal examinations resulted in significant enhancement of these clinical skills.
Sachdeva
A K
AK
Department of Surgery, Medical College of Pennsylvania and Hahnemann University, Philadelphia 19129, USA.
Wolfson
P J
PJ
Blair
P G
PG
Gillum
D R
DR
Gracely
E J
EJ
Friedman
M
M
D000005:Abdomen; D000328:Adult; D001940:Breast; D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D002983:Clinical Competence; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D010808:Physical Examination; D013663:Teaching / Q000379:methods*