The relationship between faculty ward evaluations, OSCE, and ABSITE as measures of surgical intern performance.

BACKGROUND

This study determined the degree to which ward evaluations, the American Board of Surgery In-Training Examination (ABSITE), and an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) provide equivalent information about intern performance.

METHODS

Twenty-two general surgery interns completed both the ABSITE and a 17-problem, 35-station OSCE. Faculty members completed several 12-item ward evaluations for each intern. Pearson product-moment correlations were employed to determine the degree of association among the various evaluation measures.

RESULTS

The total OSCE score correlated with both the total ABSITE score and the overall ward evaluations, but the latter two measures did not correlate with each other. The ward evaluations identified the performance of 1 of the 22 interns (5%) as deficient, the ABSITE identified 9 (41%) as deficient in knowledge, and the OSCE 8 (36%).

CONCLUSIONS

In the future, performance-based testing methods such as the OSCE should become more important as an evaluative parameter in assessing the clinical performance of postgraduate surgical trainees.