Module 11: Clinical Evaluation

There are multiple areas or domains in clinical medicine in which a student is evaluated. These include knowledge, the application of that knowledge in the clinical setting, history and physical skills, ability to develop a differential diagnosis and treatment plan, interpersonal skills with patients and members of the medical team, procedural skills such as suturing and placing lines, and professional attitudes and behaviors. There is no evaluation method that works well for all of these areas. For an evaluation to be valid it must be appropriate for the domain that is being evaluated. This section will review a number of methods that can be used to evaluate students in the clinical areas. The material is adapted from the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) Outcome Project and may be viewed in more detail at their website at www.acgme.org .