Mid-Year Assessment
First Semester Clinical Skills Assessment: Information for Students
Background: The end of first semester CSA is designed to provide feedback to students on how to improve clinical skills in order to optimize clinical performance. It also provides an introduction to the USMLE-CS format
Outcomes: Based on three common clinical cases, each student will receive feedback on:
- Overall performance (scores plus faculty observations)
- History taking
- Physical examination
- Communication
- Documentation (post-encounter notes - PENs)
Students should use this feedback to work on clinical skills during the second semester.
Format: Each student will see three cases. The cases are very straightforward common clinical presentations. The cases are NOT based on specific specialty or clerkships content. The student will have 15 minutes to take an appropriate history, perform a focused clinical examination, communicate the probable diagnosis to the patient, and negotiate any necessary diagnostic evaluation and initial plan of care. The student will then have 15 minutes to write a clinical note.
Guidance about conducting the encounters and completing the notes can be found on this website in the Encounter Guide and in the Post-Encounter Note Guide (Links are at the top of this page).
Scoring: The encounter scores will be based on SP documentation that key items were asked or done during the encounter. The PENs will be scored by faculty for documentation of key items plus the organization and presentation of the PEN. (See PEN guidelines from USMLE.)