Abstract

The predictive value of self assessed clinical skills competencies by graduate entry medical students

Author(s): A Byrne, P Jones, L Pugsley

The acquisition of clinical skills by a single cohort of Graduate Entry Medical students was assessed by using a self completed electronic log submitted by email over a period of 6 months. Of the 66 skills measured, students completed a median 41 skills in the laboratory setting (range 11-60) and 16 with real patients (range 0-42). The reliability of the logs was very high with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.83 and 0.89 respectively. Despite this, the number of skills performed on real patients was only weakly correlated (R = 0.177, p>0.05) with their performance in an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).