Toward validation of an assessment tool designed to measure medical students' integration of scientific knowledge and clinical communication skills.
This article reports on a study undertaken to validate an assessment tool of medical students' ability to integrate clinical skills and scientific knowledge within the patient encounter. One hundred forty first-year medical students at the State University of New York at Buffalo examined a standardized patient with either acute lower back pain or gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Forty-eight clinical exams were evaluated by two raters to test the interrater reliability of the instrument. Results were promising but mixed. The tool displayed high internal consistency. However, results from a generalizability study indicated that a significant amount of variance in student scores was due to faculty raters. It is recommended that future studies undertake a training workshop for raters and examine different cases in an effort to expand the flexibility of the instrument.
Feeley
Thomas Hugh
TH
State University of New York at Buffalo, USA.
Manyon
Andrea T
AT
Servoss
Timothy J
TJ
Panzarella
Karen J
KJ
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D005260:Female; D005764:Gastroesophageal Reflux / Q000175:diagnosis; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000175:diagnosis; D008297:Male; D008487:Medical History Taking / Q000592:standards*; D009518:New York; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000379:methods*; D013337:Students, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States