The MD degree is a broad undifferentiated degree attesting to general knowledge in medicine and the basic skills required for the practice of medicine. Essential abilities and characteristics required for completion of the MD degree consist of certain minimum physical and cognitive abilities and sufficient mental and emotional stability to assure that candidates for admission, promotion, and gr...

Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) addresses the challenge of preparing nurses with the competencies necessary to continuously improve the quality and safety of the health care systems in which they work. The QSEN faculty members adapted the Institute of Medicine(1) competencies for nursing (patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvem...

OBJECTIVES Amended in 2013, the current version of the German Medical Licensure Regulation contains structural specifications that are also required of non-university institutions involved in Practical Year clinical training. The criteria are worded in relatively general terms. Furthermore, not all of the structural specifications can be readily applied to every subject area. In order to ensure...

Step 1 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination has now replaced the National Board of Medical Examiners part 1 examination as the initial step in medical licensure. The new examination format places an increased emphasis on clinical vignettes to test basic physiological concepts. Suggestions from a question-writing workshop were incorporated into cardiovascular items in a midcourse p...

Nursing has moved through two major phases in licensure. From 1900 to 1938 basic registration acts were passed and amended. In 1938 the goal became mandatory licensure for all those who nursed for hire. This move was linked with the stratification of the nursing role to include both practical and registered nurses. The third and current phase in licensure began in 1971 with the Idaho revision o...

As part of the overall exam validation process, the Joint Commission on National Dental Examinations periodically reviews and validates the pass/fail standard for the National Board Dental Examination (NBDE), Parts I and II. The most recent standard-setting activities for NBDE Part II used the Objective Standard Setting method. This report describes the process used to set the pass/fail standar...

BACKGROUND The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) has been widely applied as a high-stakes examination for assessing physicians' clinical competency. In 1992, OSCE was first introduced in Taiwan, and the authorities announced that passing the OSCE would be a prerequisite for step-2 medical licensure examination in 2013. This study aimed to investigate the impacts of the announced ...

BACKGROUND Clinical skills tests have been added to the national medical licensure examinations in Canada, the U.S., Korea and Switzerland. Adding a clinical skills test to the Japanese national medical licensure examination should also be considered under the Medical Practitioners Act. On the other hand, such tests might be costly and represent an economic burden to the nation's citizens. Thus...

In a naturalistic study of teenage drivers (N = 42) hard braking events of ≤-0.45 g were assessed over the first 6 months of licensure. A total of 1,721 hard braking events were recorded. The video footage of a sample (816) of these events was examined to evaluate validity and reasons for hard braking. Of these, 788 (96.6%) were estimated valid, of which 79.1% were due to driver misjudgment, 10...

In response to views on public's right to know, there is growing attention to item disclosure - release of items, answer keys, and performance data to the public - in medical licensure examinations and their potential impact on the test's ability to measure competence and select qualified candidates. Recent debates on this issue have sparked legislative action internationally, including South K...