Development and Enforcement of Short Case Test Items for Evaluation in Undergraduate Course of Plastic Surgery: 3 Years Experience

ABSTRACT

The aim of this study is to evaluate the clinical competence of medical student using short case test items. Development of short case test items with definition of an assessment of subject, choice of clinical stations sampling, identification of components of clinical competence to be evaluated, and assessment of practicability and results exploitation. For the last three years 28, 48 and 30 topics were developed annually. Among them 20, 23 and 23 topics were selected. About 50 students were examined annually. The mean score was 72.7, 57.1, 64.3 respectively. The mean preparation time of the students for the examination was 9.8 hours. About 60% of the students prepared the test in small group activity. Our experience suggests that short case test items be feasible for evaluation of student learning in Plastic Surgery. This method should be considered as a useful tool to assess medical student's competence or even an examination for board certification.