Length of internship influences performance on medical residency exam.

Objectives: Medical education encompasses globally diverse context and conditions. The Brazilian scenario seemed a natural environment to study the influence of medical education programs and internship duration on the entrance exam for medical residency. This investigation evaluates some methods used during the entrance exam for medical residency as a means to make a distinction between candidates with longer clerkships.

Methods: Candidates selected for a residency program performed a multiple-choice (MC), an open question (OQ) and OSCE-like tests, an interview and a curriculum analysis for participation in scientific meetings, papers published and voluntary activities. Groups were compared for gender, year of graduation, tests and OSCE scores.

Results: Participants were distributed into two groups based on clerkship duration: 2 years or less than 2 years. There was no difference for the MCT score among groups or any of the activities from interview and curriculum analysis. The 2 years clerkship group showed significantly higher OQ (p=0.009) and OSCE-like affective (p=0.025) and knowledge (p=0.002) scores.

Conclusion: The OSCE test identified some aspects related to competence acquisition and assessed basic skills and attitudes essential to the supervised practice of medicine during residency. OSCE discriminated aspects not perceived by the sole use of knowledge tests.