Assessing the mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise in comparison to a national specialty examination

HATALA, ROSE
AINSLIE, MARTHA
KASSEN, BARRY O
MACKIE, IAIN
ROBERTS, J MARK

¹University of British Columbia, Canada
²University of Calgary, Canada

Correspondence Dr Rose Hatala, Suite 5907 Burrard Bldg, St Paul's Hospital, 1081 Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada, V6Z 1Y6. Tel; (604) 806 8668; Fax: (604) 806 8338; E-mail: [email protected]

Received 29 July 2005; editorial comments to 25 October 2005, 7 March 2006; accepted for publication 29 March 2006

Medical Education 40(10):p 950-956, October 2006.

PURPOSE

To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mini-CEX) for postgraduate year 4 (PGY-4) internal medicine trainees compared to a high-stakes assessment of clinical competence, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Comprehensive Examination in Internal Medicine (RCPSC IM examination).

METHODS

Twenty-two PGY-4 residents at the University of British Columbia and the University of Calgary were evaluated, during the 6 months preceding their 2004 RCPSC IM examination, with a mean of 5.5 mini-CEX encounters (range 3–6). Experienced Royal College examiners from each site travelled to the alternate university to assess the encounters.

RESULTS

The mini-CEX encounters assessed a broad range of internal medicine patient problems. The inter-encounter reliability for the residents' mean mini-CEX overall clinical competence score was 0.74. The attenuated correlation between residents' mini-CEX overall clinical competence score and their 2004 RCPSC IM oral examination score was 0.59 (P = 0.01).

CONCLUSION

By examining multiple sources of validity evidence, this study suggests that the mini-CEX provides a reliable and valid assessment of clinical competence for PGY-4 trainees in internal medicine.