• Lisa L Willett, Carlos A Estrada, Analia Castiglioni, F Stanford Massie, Gustavo R Heudebert, May S Jennings, and Robert M Centor.
• 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
• Am. J. Med. Sci. 2007 Feb 1; 333 (2): 74-7.

BackgroundFew 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.PurposeTo determine differences between postgraduate year (PGY)-1 and PGY-3 residents on performance and comfort of physical examination skills.MethodsIn 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.ResultsPGY-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).ConclusionsSenior 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.

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