title: Toward validation of an assessment tool designed to measure medical students' integration of scientific knowledge and clinical communication skills.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: State University of New York at Buffalo, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas Hugh
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Feeley
authors.forename: Andrea T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Manyon
authors.forename: Timothy J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Servoss
authors.forename: Karen J
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Panzarella
mesh_terms: 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