Division of Tropical Health and Medicine, College of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University , Townsville, Queensland , Australia.
Adv Physiol Educ. 2019 Sep 1;43(3):293-299. doi: 10.1152/advan.00012.2019.
Medical programs are under pressure to maintain currency with scientific and technical advances, as well as prepare graduates for clinical work and a wide range of postgraduate careers. The value of the basic sciences in primary medical education was assessed by exploring the perceived clinical relevance and test performance trends among medical students, interns, residents, and experienced clinicians. A pilot study conducted in 2014 involved administration of a voluntary 60-item multiple-choice question test to 225 medical students and 4 interns. These participants and 26 teaching clinicians rated the items for clinical relevance. In 2016, a similarly constructed test (main study) was made a mandatory formative assessment, attempted by 563 students in , , and and by 120 commencing general practice residents. Test scores, performance trends, clinical relevance ratings, and correlations were assessed using relevant parametric and nonparametric tests. Rank order and pass-fail decisions were also reviewed. The mean test scores were 57% (SD 7.1) and 52% (SD 6.1) for the pilot and main studies, respectively. Highest scores were observed in pathology and social sciences. Overall performance increased with increasing year of study. Test scores were positively correlated with perceived relevance. There were moderate correlations ( = 0.50-0.63; < 0.001) between participants' scores in the basic science and summative exams. Assessments may be key to fostering relevance and integration of the basic sciences. Benchmarking knowledge retention and result comparisons across topics are useful in program evaluation.
医学课程面临着保持与科学和技术进步同步的压力，同时也要为毕业生做好临床工作和广泛的研究生涯的准备。通过探索医学生、实习医生、住院医生和经验丰富的临床医生对基础科学的感知临床相关性和测试表现趋势，评估基础科学在基础医学教育中的价值。2014 年进行的一项试点研究涉及向 225 名医学生和 4 名实习医生自愿进行 60 项多项选择题测试。这些参与者和 26 名教学临床医生对项目的临床相关性进行了评分。2016 年，一项类似结构的测试（主要研究）成为强制性形成性评估，尝试的对象是、、和 120 名即将开始全科医学实习的住院医生。使用相关的参数和非参数测试评估了测试成绩、表现趋势、临床相关性评分和相关性。还审查了等级顺序和通过/失败的决定。试点研究和主要研究的平均测试分数分别为 57%（SD 7.1）和 52%（SD 6.1）。病理学和社会科学的得分最高。整体表现随着学习年限的增加而提高。测试分数与感知相关性呈正相关。基础科学和总结性考试参与者的分数之间存在中度相关性（ = 0.50-0.63； < 0.001）。评估可能是培养基础科学相关性和整合的关键。基准测试知识保留和对各主题的结果比较在项目评估中很有用。
