Standardizing Educational Opportunities on the Complete Pediatric Physical Exam

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.

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