Medical education
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Evaluation of a novel assessment form for observing medical residents: a randomised, controlled trial.
Teaching faculty cannot reliably distinguish between satisfactory and unsatisfactory resident performances and give non-specific feedback. ⋯ Modifying the currently used direct observations process may produce more recorded observations, increase inter-rater agreement and improve overall rater accuracy, but it may also increase severity error.
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Comparative Study
Relationship between candidate communication ability and oral certification examination scores.
Structured case-based oral examinations are widely used in medical certifying examinations in the USA. These orals assess the candidate's decision-making skills using real or realistic patient cases. Frequently mentioned but not empirically evaluated is the potential bias introduced by the candidate's communication ability. ⋯ Candidates' communication ability has little relationship to candidate performance on high-stakes, case-based oral examinations. Examiners for this certifying examination focused on assessing candidate decision-making ability and were not influenced by candidate communication ability.