Impact of the United States Medical Licensing Examination Step 2 Clinical Skills exam on medical school clinical skills assessment.
BACKGROUND
Medical schools face a new responsibility to prepare students for the United States Medical Licensing Exam Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) exam.


METHODS
We conducted semistructured interviews with 25 leaders of medical school clinical skills assessments to explore purposes of in-house assessment and the impact of the Step 2 CS exam. Interviews were coded to identify major themes.


RESULTS
Competency assessment, student and curricular feedback, and preparation for the licensing exam emerged as major purposes of in-house exams. Participants asserted that in-house exams assessed faculty-identified competencies, although not all schools had defined competencies. Limited resources made balancing formative and summative assessment goals problematic for some schools. Curricular feedback was general but valued. All schools, even those that disagreed with aspects of the licensing exam, acknowledged their roles in preparing students for the Step 2 CS.


CONCLUSIONS
An external licensing requirement engenders debate and motivates changes in clinical skills assessment and, in some cases, curricula.
Hauer
Karen E
KE
University of California, San Francisco, 533 Parnassus Ave., Box 0131, U137, San Francisco, CA 94143-0131, USA. khauer@medicine.ucsf.edu
Teherani
Arianne
A
Kerr
Kathleen M
KM
O'sullivan
Patricia S
PS
Irby
David M
DM
D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D005246:Feedback; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008007:Licensure, Medical; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration*; D014481:United States