Comparing rural-trained medical students with their peers: performance in a primary care OSCE.

Background: Although it is well-established and considered successful, there is limited data on how the graduates of a Minnesota rural medical education program (Rural Physician Associate Program [RPAP]) compare with their peers.

Purpose: To compare the performance of RPAP students with their peers on a primary care observed structured clinical examination (OSCE).

Methods: The performances of RPAP students and a group of non-RPAP Year 4 medical students were compared on the same OSCE.

Results: RPAP students performed at least as well as their peers on stations assessing performance on common primary care clinical scenarios but not as well on a small number of stations that assessed applied knowledge of specific content taught in the traditional clerkship curriculum.

Conclusions: We provide evidence that rurally trained students at this institution performed at least as well as their peers on OSCE stations testing performance in common primary care scenarios. The broader implications of this study are that medical students may receive high-quality training in rural communities, as documented by their performance on an objective structured clinical examination.