Assessment of first-year post-graduate residents: Usefulness of multiple tools

Background: Objective Structural Clinical Examination (OSCE) usually needs a large number of stations with long test time, which usually exceeds the resources available in a medical center. We aimed to determine the reliability of a combination of Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS), Internal Medicine in-Training Examination (IM-ITE ^®) and OSCE, and to verify the correlation between the small-scale OSCE+DOPS+IM-ITE ^®-composited scores and 360-degree evaluation scores of first year post-graduate (PGY ₁) residents. Methods: Between 2007 January to 2010 January, two hundred and nine internal medicine PGY1 residents completed DOPS, IM-ITE ^® and small-scale OSCE at our hospital. Faculty members completed 12-item 360-degree evaluation for each of the PGY ₁ residents regularly. Results: The small-scale OSCE scores correlated well with the 360-degree evaluation scores (r = 0.37, p < 0.021). Interestingly, the addition of DOPS scores to small-scale OSCE scores [small-scale OSCE+DOPS-composited scores] increased it's correlation with 360-degree evaluation scores of PGY ₁ residents (r = 0.72, p < 0.036). Further, combination of IM-ITE ^® score with small-scale OSCE+DOPS scores [small-scale OSCE+DOPS+IM-ITE ^®-composited scores] markedly enhanced their correlation with 360-degree evaluation scores (r = 0.85, p < 0.016). Conclusion: The strong correlations between 360-degree evaluation and small-scale OSCE+DOPS+IM-ITE ^®-composited scores suggested that both methods were measuring the same quality. Our results showed that the small-scale OSCE, when associated with both the DOPS and IM-ITE ^®, could be an important assessment method for PGY ₁ residents.