Clinical trial NCT00711659: Standardizing Educational Opportunities on the Complete Pediatric Physical Exam
Official title: Standardizing Educational Opportunities on the Complete Pediatric Physical Exam
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Conditions: Pediatric Physical Exam
Keywords: Physical exam
Pediatric clerkship
Medical students
Lead sponsor: Medical College of Wisconsin
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2008-07-09
Enrollment: 519
Sex: ALL
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: PROSPECTIVE
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: All third year medical students starting their pediatric clerkship at the Medical College of Wisconsin

Brief summary: The study proposes that a workshop-based educational experience which utilizes a standardized preceptor training session, a standard skills assessment checklist, and videotaped feedback will improve student comfort and confidence in performing the pediatric physical examination and will provide information to improve the curriculum offerings.

Detailed description: The baseline clinical experience of third year medical students rotating through the clerkship varies, depending on previous clerkships and volunteer opportunities previously encountered. The less experienced third year medical student may require more time and feedback to develop competency. The availability and experience of clinical preceptors and background of the patient may also play a role in the development of pediatric physical examination skills. Other institutions have offered standardized approaches to teaching the health maintenance physical exam. To address these issues, we propose a workshop-based educational experience to (1)determine whether offering a workshop that standardizes exposure to physical exams for junior medical students will improve opportunities to practice physical exam skills in a non-threatening environment, (2)promote immediate feedback to the student that allows for self-reflection by viewing a videotape of their performance, (3)delineate how physical exam skills change in junior medical students throughout the year, and (4)evaluate the inter-rater variability of preceptors teaching health maintenance exams to students rotating through the pediatric clerkship.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* third year medical students will participate in the physical exam skills workshop as a requirement of their pediatric clerkship; data obtained from review of videotapes of students who consent for data use will be included

Exclusion Criteria:

* data from students who do not consent to use of data will not be used for analysis

Primary outcomes:
measure: To determine if offering a standardized workshop-based education experience for third year medical students will improve student comfort and confidence in performing the pediatric physical exam and provide information to improve curriculum offerings.
timeFrame: 8 weeks (the length of the clerkship rotation)
Secondary outcomes:
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Milwaukee
country: United States
facility: Medical College of Wisconsin
state: Wisconsin
Study officials:
affiliation: Medical College of Wisconsin
name: Joshua D Noe, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
affiliation: Medical College of Wisconsin
name: Paola Palma-Sisto, MD
role: STUDY_CHAIR
References: