Use of unstructured parent narratives to evaluate medical student competencies in communication and professionalism.

Objective: Medical education programs across the country are now required to conduct meaningful assessments of trainees' competencies, although uniform standards for conducting these evaluations have yet to be established. In 1999, the Indiana University School of Medicine introduced a comprehensive competency-based undergraduate curriculum. The overall goal of the curriculum is to make medical students' day-to-day experiences of training a source of learning about professionalism, communication, and aspects of medicine beyond factual knowledge.