A core physical exam for medical students: results of a national survey.

Purpose: Medical students are traditionally taught the physical exam as a comprehensive battery of maneuvers, yet they express uncertainty about which maneuvers are "core" and should be performed routinely on patients and which ones should be performed only when clinically indicated. The authors sought to determine whether educator consensus existed on the concept and the specifics of a core physical exam for students.

Method: The authors developed a 45-maneuver core physical exam to be performed by a medicine clerkship student on every newly admitted patient, with the expectation that it would be supplemented by clinically indicated additional maneuvers.

Long-term retention of smoking cessation counseling skills learned in the first year of medical school.

Background: Tobacco use is a significant cause of preventable morbidity and mortality in the United States, yet clinicians underutilize smoking cessation counseling. Medical schools are increasingly including training for smoking cessation skills in preclinical curricula. Information about long-term retention of these skills is needed.

Face-to-face clinical skills feedback: lessons from the analysis of standardized patient's work.

Background: Current evidence suggests that trainees are evaluated less stringently when feedback is given face-to-face, limiting its value.

Purpose: We expected that standardized patients (SPs) would also be more lenient in scoring when they gave immediate feedback to the students.

Methods: Data from 6 clinical skills assessments of students in Years 1 to 4 of medical school were used.