A multilevel analysis of examinee gender, standardized patient gender, and United States medical licensing examination step 2 clinical skills communication and interpersonal skills scores.

Background: Women typically demonstrate stronger communication skills on performance-based assessments using human raters in medical education settings. This study examines the effects of examinee and rater gender on communication and interpersonal skills (CIS) scores from the performance-based component of the United States Medical Licensing Examination, the Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) examination.

Method: Data included demographic and performance information for examinees that took Step 2 CS for the first time in 2009. The sample contained 27,910 examinees, 625 standardized patient/case combinations, and 278,776 scored patient encounters. Hierarchical linear modeling techniques were employed with CIS scores as the outcome measure.

Results: Females tend to slightly outperform males on CIS, when other variables related to performance are taken into account. No evidence of an examinee and rater gender interaction effect was found.

Conclusions: Results provide validity evidence supporting the interpretation and use of Step 2 CS CIS scores.