OBJECTIVE To investigate the association between student performance in undergraduate objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) and the examination schedule to which they were assigned to undertake these examinations. DESIGN Analysis of routinely collected data. SETTING One UK medical school. PARTICIPANTS 2331 OSCEs of 3 different types (obstetrics OSCE, paediatrics OSCE and simu...

Introduction Core competencies have progressively gained importance in medical education. In other contexts, especially personnel selection and development, assessment centers (ACs) are used to assess competencies, but there is only a limited number of studies on competency-based ACs in medical education. To the best of our knowledge, the present study provides the first data on the criterion-r...

BACKGROUND The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) has gained widespread use as a form of performance assessment. However, opportunities for students to participate in practice OSCEs are limited by the financial, faculty and administrative investments required. OBJECTIVES To determine the feasibility and acceptability of a student-run mock OSCE (MOSCE) as a learning experience fo...

BACKGROUND Integrating electronic health records (EHRs) into clinical care can prevent physicians from focusing on patients. Despite rapid EHR adoption, few curricula teach communication skills and best practices for patient-centered EHR use. OBJECTIVE We piloted a 'Patient-centered EHR use' curriculum, consisting of a lecture and group-observed structured clinical examination (GOSCE) for sec...

OBJECTIVE To measure any changes in the communication skills of primary care physicians before and after a part-time Diploma course in Family Medicine. SUBJECTS 79 Hong Kong Chinese doctors (46 of whom were local graduates, with an average of 7 years in general practice). METHODS Over the 10-month course in 2000-01, participants had 11 2.5-hour lecture/demonstrations in communication skills...