Calificación médica nacional / National medical grading

ABSTRACT

A new, common system for grading medical graduates from the 6 Chilean Schools of Medicine has been agreed by consensus the National Medical Grading. This was an evident need since up to now each school applied a different criterion to qualify its graduates; the resulting disparity in the scores with which graduates applied for the National calls in postgraduate training programs, general practice positions and the like, elicited uneasiness both among graduates and academic staff. In the new system, the final grade is calculed giving iqual relative importance to the marks in lecensure (60%), internships (30%) and final clincial examinations (10%). The National Medical Grading has been applied for the first time by the Ministry of Health in the 1989 call, and by the University of Chile and Catholic University's Medical School (call for postgraduate training programs). It is hoped that within 2 or 3 years a National Medical Examination will be designed and applied