title: A core competence-based objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in evaluation of clinical performance of postgraduate year-1 (PGY₁) residents.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Clinical competency certifications are important parts of internal medicine residency training. This study aims to evaluate a composite objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) that assesses postgraduate year-1 (PGY(1)) residents' acquisition of the six core competencies defined by the Accreditation council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).
  
  
  METHODS
  Six-core-competency-based OSCE was used as examination of the clinical performance of 192 PGY(1) residents during their 3-month internal medicine training between 2007 January and 2009 December. For each year, the reliability of the entire examination was calculated with Cronbach's alpha.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The reliability of six-core-competency-based OSCE was acceptable, ranging from 0.69 to 0.87 between 2007 and 2009. In comparison with baseline scores, the summary scores and core-competency subscores all showed significant increase after PGY(1) residents finished their 3-month internal medicine training program.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By using a structured development process, the authors were able to create reliable evaluation items for determining PGY(1) residents' acquisition of the ACGME core competencies.
authors.affiliation: Division of General Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC.
authors.forename: Ying-Ying
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Fa-Yauh
authors.initials: FY
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hui-Chi
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Chin-Chou
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Jaw-Wen
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Wen-Shin
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Chiao-Lin
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.forename: Ching-Chih
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Hao-Min
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Chia-Chang
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D000068:Accreditation; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency