Department of Preventive Medicine and Biometrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
Med Educ. 2012 Feb;46(2):172-8. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2011.04080.x.
Medical school admissions committees attempt to select the most qualified applicants. In addition to traditional performance measures, committees often look favourably upon applicants who report previous clinical experience.
This study aimed to determine if self-reported clinical experience is a valid indicator of future performance in medical school and internship.
We collected data for seven year groups (1993-1999; n = 1112) and operationalised trainee performance in terms of five outcomes: cumulative medical school grade point average (GPA); US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 and 2 scores, and scores on a validated programme director's evaluation measuring intern expertise and professionalism. We then conducted a series of analyses of covariance to compare outcomes in applicants who self-reported previous clinical experience with outcomes in those who did not. In these analyses, the independent variable was self-reported clinical experience (yes/no), the covariate was undergraduate GPA, and the dependent variables were the five performance outcomes.
In four of five analyses, we found no differences in the performance of the two groups (clinical experience versus no clinical experience). However, on the cumulative medical school GPA outcome, applicants who reported previous clinical experience had statistically significantly lower cumulative GPAs upon graduation than those who did not report such experience (F(1,940) = 9.35, p = 0.002, partial η(2) = 0.01 [small effect size]).
Our results suggest that applicants who self-report previous clinical experience may not be better candidates. In fact, on some measures of performance, these applicants may actually perform worse than those who report no clinical experience.
医学院招生委员会试图选拔最合格的申请人。除了传统的表现衡量标准外，委员会通常也会青睐那些有先前临床经验的申请人。
本研究旨在确定自我报告的临床经验是否是医学生和实习医生未来表现的有效指标。
我们收集了七个年级组（1993-1999 年；n=1112）的数据，并根据五个结果来衡量学员表现：累计医学院平均绩点（GPA）；美国医师执照考试（USMLE）第 1 步和第 2 步成绩，以及经验证的主任评估衡量实习生专业知识和专业精神的分数。然后，我们进行了一系列协方差分析，以比较自我报告有先前临床经验的申请人与没有报告的申请人的结果。在这些分析中，自变量是自我报告的临床经验（是/否），协变量是本科 GPA，因变量是五个表现结果。
在五项分析中的四项中，我们发现两组（有临床经验与无临床经验）的表现没有差异。然而，在累计医学院 GPA 结果上，报告有先前临床经验的申请人在毕业时的累计 GPA 明显低于没有报告此类经验的申请人（F(1,940)=9.35，p=0.002，部分 η²=0.01[小效应量]）。
我们的结果表明，自我报告有先前临床经验的申请人可能不是更好的候选人。实际上，在某些表现衡量标准上，这些申请人的表现可能实际上不如那些没有报告临床经验的申请人。
