Medical Student Performance on a Geriatrics Problem in a Clinical Practice Examination

Abstract

This article reports the results of postclerkship medical student performance on a primary care geriatrics problem in a clinical skills examination, and the correlates of student performance. Measurements include checklists of medical student history taking and physical examination skills completed by a standardized patient and student responses to a written challenge about case diagnosis and management. Measures of medical student aptitude, achievement, and demographic variables are also reported. Descriptive data about medical student case performance about the geriatrics problem indicate there is much variation in the approach taken by medical students toward a geriatric patient presenting with reported abdominal pain. Correlation coefficients between student case performance and measures of aptitude, achievement, and demographic variables were uniformly low. It is concluded that the clinical curriculum should provide medical students with more opportunity for education in geriatrics.