title: Assessment of first-year post-graduate residents: usefulness of multiple tools.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Objective Structural Clinical Examination (OSCE) usually needs a large number of stations with long test time, which usually exceeds the resources available in a medical center. We aimed to determine the reliability of a combination of Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS), Internal Medicine in-Training Examination (IM-ITE(®)) and OSCE, and to verify the correlation between the small-scale OSCE+DOPS+IM-ITE(®)-composited scores and 360-degree evaluation scores of first year post-graduate (PGY(1)) residents.
  
  
  METHODS
  Between 2007 January to 2010 January, two hundred and nine internal medicine PGY1 residents completed DOPS, IM-ITE(®) and small-scale OSCE at our hospital. Faculty members completed 12-item 360-degree evaluation for each of the PGY(1) residents regularly.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The small-scale OSCE scores correlated well with the 360-degree evaluation scores (r = 0.37, p < 0.021). Interestingly, the addition of DOPS scores to small-scale OSCE scores [small-scale OSCE+DOPS-composited scores] increased it's correlation with 360-degree evaluation scores of PGY(1) residents (r = 0.72, p < 0.036). Further, combination of IM-ITE(®) score with small-scale OSCE+DOPS scores [small-scale OSCE+DOPS+IM-ITE(®)-composited scores] markedly enhanced their correlation with 360-degree evaluation scores (r = 0.85, p < 0.016).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The strong correlations between 360-degree evaluation and small-scale OSCE+DOPS+IM-ITE(®)-composited scores suggested that both methods were measuring the same quality. Our results showed that the small-scale OSCE, when associated with both the DOPS and IM-ITE(®), could be an important assessment method for PGY(1) residents.
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: Hao-Min
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Cheng
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: Chia-Chang
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Huang
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D015203:Reproducibility of Results