Journal of educational evaluation for health professions
Volume 14, 2017

Evaluation of a course to prepare international students for the United States Medical Licensing Examination step 2 clinical skills exam (Article) (Open Access)

Levine R.B. , Levy A.P. , Lubin R. , Halevi S. , Rios R. , Cayea D.
  • a Technion Faculty of Medicine, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, MD, Israel
  • b Technion Faculty of Medicine, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, MD, Israel
  • c Technion Faculty of Medicine, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, MD, Israel
  • d Technion Faculty of Medicine, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, MD, Israel
  • e Technion Faculty of Medicine, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, MD, Israel
  • f Technion Faculty of Medicine, Technion Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, MD, Israel

Abstract

PURPOSE: United States (US) and Canadian citizens attending medical school abroad often desire to return to the US for residency, and therefore must pass US licensing exams. We describe a 2-day United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) step 2 clinical skills (CS) preparation course for students in the Technion American Medical School program (Haifa, Israel) between 2012 and 2016.METHODS: Students completed pre- and post-course questionnaires. The paired t-test was used to measure students' perceptions of knowledge, preparation, confidence, and competence in CS pre- and post-course. To test for differences by gender or country of birth, analysis of variance was used. We compared USMLE step 2 CS pass rates between the 5 years prior to the course and the 5 years during which the course was offered.RESULTS: Ninety students took the course between 2012 and 2016. Course evaluations began in 2013. Seventy-three students agreed to participate in the evaluation, and 64 completed the pre- and post-course surveys. Of the 64 students, 58% were US-born and 53% were male. Students reported statistically significant improvements in confidence and competence in all areas. No differences were found by gender or country of origin. The average pass rate for the 5 years prior to the course was 82%, and the average pass rate for the 5 years of the course was 89%.CONCLUSION: A CS course delivered at an international medical school may help to close the gap between the pass rates of US and international medical graduates on a high-stakes licensing exam. More experience is needed to determine if this model is replicable.

Author Keywords

curriculum Clinical competence educational measurement Foreign medical graduates

Index Keywords

education curriculum human licensing Clinical Competence procedures Licensure, Medical United States Young Adult Humans male female medical education standards adult Educational Measurement Students, Medical medical student Education, Medical, Undergraduate
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85040990704&doi=10.3352%2fjeehp.2017.14.25&partnerID=40&md5=92b743a7306307206ebf4a7468aa1e90
DOI: 10.3352/jeehp.2017.14.25
ISSN: 19755937
Cited by: 2
Original Language: English