Evaluating clinical skills in an undergraduate medical education curriculum

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Abstract
The University of Washington School of Medicine conducted a series of internal surveys to investigate senior students’ capabilities with respect to clinical skills and behaviors. The surveys examined faculty opinion regarding essential clinical skills and sought their estimates of potential problem areas. They also identified those clinical skills and behaviors on which students reported whether they had ever been expected to demonstrate proficiency. Three questions were addressed: (a) What behaviors and skills should all undergraduate medical students in this institution be expected to demonstrate before graduation? (b) Do senior medical students at this institution appear to be learning skills that faculty believe are essential? (c) How should skills that are considered essential by the institution's faculty be evaluated? This approach to institutional self‐study is presented as a model for determining how a medical school that does not have a comprehensive performance‐based evaluation system can determine whether there is a consensus that one may be needed. Results of the process and reactions of the faculty to the conclusions are discussed.