Does residency training improve performance of physical examination skills?
BACKGROUND
Few studies use objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) to measure physical examination skills of internal medicine residents. Little is known about performance by year of residency training.


OBJECTIVE
To determine differences between postgraduate year (PGY)-1 and PGY-3 residents on performance and comfort of physical examination skills.


METHODS
In a cross-sectional study, we tested 16 PGY-1 (weeks 0 and 4) and 8 PGY-3 internal medicine residents with a five-station OSCE.


RESULTS
PGY-3 residents performed better than PGY-1 week 0 residents (P = 0.03) but not PGY-1 week 4 residents (P = 0.42). PGY-1 resident performance improved after 1 month of inpatient wards experience (P < 0.001). PGY-3 residents had higher comfort compared to PGY-1 week 0 residents (P = 0.003) but not PGY-1 week 4 residents (P = 0.10).


CONCLUSIONS
Senior residents performed better and were more confident on physical examination skills, but the difference disappeared after 1 month of internship. This calls into question how much further learning occurs with physical examination throughout residency training.
Willett
Lisa L
LL
Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Huntsville Regional Medical Campus, Birmingham, Alabama 35294-0012, USA. lwillett@uabmc.edu
Estrada
Carlos A
CA
Castiglioni
Analia
A
Massie
F Stanford
FS
Heudebert
Gustavo R
GR
Jennings
May S
MS
Centor
Robert M
RM
D002983:Clinical Competence; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D004521:Educational Measurement; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D010808:Physical Examination