Assessing Medical Student Competence in an Ambulatory Setting

Despite considerable interest in educational research related to neurology, little has been published in this discipline. These authors developed and tested a method to assess medical student clinical competence during an ambulatory clinical exam. Specifically, they assessed students’ ability to localize a lesion, develop a probable diagnosis, and establish a diagnostic evaluation and treatment plan. Students examined patients in an outpatient clinic and presented their findings both verbally to an attending physician and in writing on an evaluation form. The attending physician then examined the patient and completed a separate section on the same form. The authors reviewed and analyzed this information.

Eighty-seven students completed 425 …