2022 Shandong Province university medical technical skills competition nursing track: An effective project to improve core competencies of nursing students.

Background: The core competencies of nursing students have gradually become the focus of attention of nursing educators. Nursing skills competitions are an important form of educational and teaching activity in universities and the nursing track at the Shandong Provincial University Students' Medical Technical Skills Competition gives nursing students an opportunity to demonstrate their clinical skills and knowledge. This study aims to describe the organisation and procedures of the nursing track, analyse the competition results and explore the impact the competition has on the core competencies of the nursing students. This will provide new ideas for future nursing professional education. Methods: Statistical analysis of the competition results was performed as a means of understanding the current status of theoretical knowledge and clinical skills of nursing students in Shandong Province. The impact of the competition on the core competencies of participating students was analysed by distributing questionnaires to universities in Shandong Province that participated in the competition. Results: 14 universities with nursing programmes participated in the competition, including eight public universities and six private universities. 220 questionnaires were distributed to nursing students at the participating universities and 218 were ultimately included, demonstrating an efficiency rate of 99.09%. Conclusions: The 2022 nursing track included the addition of a comprehensive written examination as a means of judging the competencies of nursing students in Shandong Province from a variety of aspects. Skills competitions are effective for improving the core competencies of nursing students and they will become an important means for nursing educators to reform education and improve the core competencies of nursing students in the future.

Aproximación teórica a las incoherencias grafo-corporales en los procesos de recogida de muestras en pericia caligráfica / Theoretical approach to grapho-corporal inconsistencies in the processes of sample collection in handwriting expertise / Abordagem teórica das inconsistências grafo-corporais nos processos de coleta de amostras em perícias de caligrafia

La recogida de muestras indubitadas al momento de elaborar un cuerpo de escritura a una persona, es un proceso de suma importancia en la pericia caligráfica. Existen parámetros por los que se rigen los peritos calígrafos al confeccionar dicho cuerpo de escritura, que se centran de forma general en la posición del escribiente, la velocidad escritural, la espontaneidad, cantidad de muestras, entre otros. Sin embargo, el escribiente puede intentar alterarlo o manipularlo de diferentes formas, normalmente intentando dificultar la labor pericial. Así, existen diversos elementos que indican a un experto en grafística que se está intentando modificar la escritura o firma durante este proceso desde el punto de vista técnico. En este sentido, el objetivo de este estudio es resaltar la importancia de recopilar un cuerpo de escritura con todas las garantías para que pueda tratarse como un documento incuestionable, además de destacar la relevancia de que el perito tenga la capacidad de confirmar la sinceridad del escribiente, tanto mediante el análisis de su escritura (grafología) como a través del análisis de su comunicación no verbal en el momento de escribirlo. Se ha utilizado una metodología cualitativa, usando la técnica de información documental, mediante la recopilación de información para su estudio y análisis, así como de monografías, manuales de estudio y artículos científicos.

The collection of indubitable samples when a corpus of handwriting is taken from a person is an extremely important process in handwriting expertise. There are parameters by which handwriting experts are governed when making such a writing corpus, which generally focus on the position of the scribe, writing speed, spontaneity, number of samples, among others. However, the scribe may try to alter or manipulate it in different ways, usually in an attempt to hinder the expert's work. Thus, there are several elements that indicate to a handwriting expert that an attempt is being made to modify the handwriting or signature during this process from a technical point of view. In this sense, the aim of this study is to highlight the importance of compiling a handwriting corpus with all the guarantees that it can be treated as an unquestionable document, as well as highlighting the importance of the expert having the ability to confirm the scribe's sincerity, both through the analysis of their handwriting (graphology) and through the analysis of their non-verbal communication at the time of writing. A qualitative methodology has been used, using the documentary information technique, by means of the collection of information for study and analysis, as well as monographs, study manuals and scientific articles.

A coleta de provas indubitáveis quando um corpo de caligrafia é retirado de uma pessoa é um processo extremamente importante na perícia de caligrafia. Existem parâmetros pelos quais os peritos em caligrafia são regidos ao fazer esse corpo de escrita, que geralmente se concentram na posição do escriba, na velocidade da escrita, na espontaneidade, no número de amostras, entre outros. No entanto, o escrevente pode tentar alterá-lo ou manipulá-lo de diversas formas, geralmente na tentativa de dificultar o trabalho do perito. Assim, existem vários elementos que indicam ao perito em caligrafia que, do ponto de vista técnico, está havendo uma tentativa de modificar a caligrafia ou a assinatura durante esse processo. Nesse sentido, o objetivo deste estudo é destacar a importância de se compilar um corpo de caligrafia com todas as garantias de que possa ser tratado como um documento inquestionável, bem como destacar a importância de o perito ter a capacidade de confirmar a sinceridade do escrevente, tanto por meio da análise de sua caligrafia (grafologia) quanto por meio da análise de sua comunicação não verbal no momento da escrita. Foi utilizada uma metodologia qualitativa, com a técnica de informação documental, por meio da coleta de informações para estudo e análise, bem como de monografias, manuais de estudo e artigos científicos.

Barriers and facilitators to writing quality items for medical school assessments - a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Producing a sufficient quantity of quality items for use in medical school examinations is a continuing challenge in medical education. We conducted this scoping review to identify barriers and facilitators to writing good quality items and note gaps in the literature that are yet to be addressed. METHODS: We conducted searches of three databases (ERIC, Medline and Scopus) as well as Google Scholar for empirical studies on the barriers and facilitators for writing good quality items for medical school examinations. RESULTS: The initial search yielded 1997 articles. After applying pre-determined criteria, 13 articles were selected for the scoping review. Included studies could be broadly categorised into studies that attempted to directly investigate the barriers and facilitators and studies that provided implicit evidence. Key findings were that faculty development and quality assurance were facilitators of good quality item writing while barriers at both an individual and institutional level include motivation, time constraints and scheduling. CONCLUSIONS: Although studies identified factors that may improve or negatively impact on the quality of items written by faculty and clinicians, there was limited research investigating the barriers and facilitators for individual item writers. Investigating these challenges could lead to more targeted and effective interventions to improve both the quality and quantity of assessment items.

Gender bias favors female nursing students in the written examination evaluation: Crossover study.

BACKGROUND: Gender discrimination against male nursing students has been reported and attributed to the female-dominated tradition of nursing profession. OBJECTIVES: To investigate gender bias in the written examination evaluation of undergraduate nursing students. DESIGN: One-group crossover study with two phases. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Four male and four female examiners provided 400 previously graded examination scripts (50 each) of nursing students. METHODS: Participating examiners were asked to re-grade scripts after any information about student identity was covered to allow blind marking. Script degrees after non-blind and blind marking were compared within male and within female students, as well as between male and female students. RESULTS: Significantly more female students' degrees shifted downwards and less of them shifted upwards compared with male students' degrees after blind marking, while mean degree of female students was significantly lower. Among male examiners, significantly more female students' degrees shifted downwards and less of them shifted upwards compared with male students' degrees after blind marking, while mean degree of male students was significantly higher. Among female examiners, mean degree of both male and female students was significantly lower after blind marking. No central tendency bias was detected. CONCLUSIONS: Gender bias in favor of females was detected in the written examination evaluation of nursing students. This unequal treatment may prevent retention of males in nursing studies and profession.

An investigation into the optimal number of distractors in single-best answer exams.

In UK medical schools, five-option single-best answer (SBA) questions are the most widely accepted format of summative knowledge assessment. However, writing SBA questions with four effective incorrect options is difficult and time consuming, and consequently, many SBAs contain a high frequency of implausible distractors. Previous research has suggested that fewer than five-options could hence be used for assessment, without deterioration in quality. Despite an existing body of empirical research in this area however, evidence from undergraduate medical education is sparse. The study investigated the frequency of non-functioning distractors in a sample of 480 summative SBA questions at Cardiff University. Distractor functionality was analysed, and then various question models were tested to investigate the impact of reducing the number of distractors per question on examination difficulty, reliability, discrimination and pass rates. A survey questionnaire was additionally administered to 108 students (33 % response rate) to gain insight into their perceptions of these models. The simulation of various exam models revealed that, for four and three-option SBA models, pass rates, reliability, and mean item discrimination remained relatively constant. The average percentage mark however consistently increased by 1-3 % with the four and three-option models, respectively. The questionnaire survey revealed that the student body had mixed views towards the proposed format change. This study is one of the first to comprehensively investigate distractor performance in SBA examinations in undergraduate medical education. It provides evidence to suggest that using three-option SBA questions would maximise efficiency whilst maintaining, or possibly improving, psychometric quality, through allowing a greater number of questions per exam paper.

Can learning outcomes in cognitive domain be assessed effectively using multiple choice questions? A study in an undergraduate pharmacy curriculum

Background: The widespread use of multiple choice questions (MCQ) in examinations is attributed to its logistical advantage and broad coverage of content within a short duration. The end-of-semester examinations for several modules in the pharmacy programme previously employed a combination of written examination tools including MCQ, short answer questions (SAQ) or essays for assessing learning outcomes in the cognitive domain. Concerns regarding assessment fatigue and subjectivity in marking have led to a review of the assessment formats in the examinations. Various types of MCQ were consequently introduced as the only assessment tool. This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of students in the examinations as a result of the change. Methodology: Analyses were carried out on the end-ofsemester examination results of two cohorts of students for each module, one based on a combination of MCQ, SAQ or essay and the other based on MCQ alone. The class means were compared, and t-test was used to determine the difference between the performances. Results: Although the difference in the mean scores of the two groups is statistically significant in 13 of the 20 modules, the difference is less than 5% in 10 modules. Conclusion: The findings provide evidence that wellconstructed MCQ can effectively assess cognitive skills.

Association of the pre-internship objective structured clinical examination in final year medical students with comprehensive written examinations.

AIM: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the association of the pre-internship Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in final year medical students with comprehensive written examinations. SUBJECTS AND MATERIAL: All medical students of October 2004 admission who took part in the October 2010 National Comprehensive Pre-internship Examination (NCPE) and pre-internship OSCE were included in the study (n = 130). OSCE and NCPE scores and medical grade point average (GPA) were collected. RESULTS: GPA was highly correlated with NCPE (r = 0.76 and P<0.001) and moderately with OSCE (r = 0.68 and P < 0.001). Similarly a moderate correlation was observed between NCPE and OSCE scores(r = 0.6 and P < 0.001).Linear stepwise regression shows r(2) of a model applying GPA as predictor of OSCE score is 0.46 (ß = 0.68 and P < 0.001), while addition of gender to the model increases r(2) to 0.59 (ß = 0.61 and 0.36, for GPA and male gender, respectively and P < 0.001). Logistic forward regression models shows male gender and GPA are the only dependent predictors of high score in OSCE. OR of GPA and male gender for high OSCE score are 4.89 (95% CI = 2.37-10.06) and 6.95 (95% CI = 2.00-24.21), respectively (P < 0.001). DISCUSSION: Our findings indicate OSCE and examination which mainly evaluate knowledge, judged by GPA and NCPE are moderately to highly correlated. Our results illustrate the interwoven nature of knowledge and clinical skills. In other words, certain level of knowledge is crucial for appropriate clinical performance. Our findings suggest neither OSCE nor written forms of assessments can replace each other. They are complimentary and should also be combined by other evaluations to cover all attributes of clinical competence efficiently.

The Correlation between the Scores of Written Examination, the Clinical Clerkship Examination, the Clinical Skill Assessment, and the Graduation Examination of the Medical Students.

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate correlations between medical student scores on 4 examinations: the written examination, clinical clerkship examination, clinical skill assessment, and graduation examination. METHODS: Scores for 51 students who entered Daegu Catholic Medical School in 2005 on the written examination, clinical clerkship examination, clinical skill assessment, and graduation examination were included. Correlations between the scores were analyzed statistically. RESULTS: The scores on the written examination showed a strong correlation with those of the clinical clerkship assessment (0.833) and graduation examination (0.821). The clinical clerkship assessment scores correlated significantly with graduation examination scores (0.907). In addition, clinical skill assessment scores correlated with the written examination (0.579), clinical clerkship examination (0.570), and graduation examination (0.465) scores. CONCLUSION: Overall, the correlation between the scores on the clinical clerkship examination and the written examination was more significant than the correlation between scores on the clinical clerkship examination and clinical skill assessment. Therefore, we need to improve the evaluation method for the clinical clerkship examination and clinical skill assessment.

The Correlation between the Scores of Written Examination, the Clinical Clerkship Examination, the Clinical Skill Assessment, and the Graduation Examination of the Medical Students / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate correlations between medical student scores on 4 examinations: the written examination, clinical clerkship examination, clinical skill assessment, and graduation examination. METHODS: Scores for 51 students who entered Daegu Catholic Medical School in 2005 on the written examination, clinical clerkship examination, clinical skill assessment, and graduation examination were included. Correlations between the scores were analyzed statistically. RESULTS: The scores on the written examination showed a strong correlation with those of the clinical clerkship assessment (0.833) and graduation examination (0.821). The clinical clerkship assessment scores correlated significantly with graduation examination scores (0.907). In addition, clinical skill assessment scores correlated with the written examination (0.579), clinical clerkship examination (0.570), and graduation examination (0.465) scores. CONCLUSION: Overall, the correlation between the scores on the clinical clerkship examination and the written examination was more significant than the correlation between scores on the clinical clerkship examination and clinical skill assessment. Therefore, we need to improve the evaluation method for the clinical clerkship examination and clinical skill assessment.

The Correlation between CPX and Written Examination Scores in Medical Students / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study is to analyse the gap between what medical students learn in theory and their clinical performance in reality. The hypothesis is that students with high written examination scores will also perform better in the Clinical Performance Examination (CPX). METHODS: 128 Catholic University medical students in year four took the CPX on 24th, September 2005. 40 standardized patients (SPs) were involved as assessors. Each student performed five CPX cases. The students' written examination scores of year three, SPs' assessment scores were used as instruments. Students were divided into two groups (A and B) and each group consisted of 64 students. Correlation between the written examination scores and the CPX scores, CPX case scores and related written examination scores were analysed. RESULTS: Overall, there was no significant correlation between the CPX score and the written examination scores in total, but significant correlations were shown in family medicine CPX scores of both groups A and B (pearson=.308, p=.199; pearson=.258, p=.051). From the analysis of the CPX cases and related written examination scores, group A showed significant correlation in three out of the five cases. No significant correlation seen in group B. CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that large gaps still exist between theory and practice. Some suggestions are given to minimize these gap.

Correlation of CPX Scores with the Scores of the Clinical Clerkship Assessments and Written Examinations / 한국의학교육

PURPOSE: Recently, the clinical performance examination (CPX) using standardized patients has been introduced to several Korean medical schools. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the correlation of CPX scores with the scores of other clinical clerkship assessments and written examinations. METHODS: We evaluated the correlation of the scores of CPX, which was administered to third-year medical students (n=230) at Seoul National University College of Medicine in January 2005, with the scores of a slide examination in internal medicine, an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology, and the written examinations in internal medicine and general surgery. RESULTS: CPX scores showed a mild correlation with the scores of the slide examination in internal medicine and OSCE in pediatrics and obstetrics/gynecology (r=0.19, 0.28, 0.30). CPX scores were also mildly correlated with written examination scores in internal medicine but not associated with those in general surgery. CONCLUSION: Considering the mild correlation of CPX scores with scores of other clinical clerkship assessments and written examinations, CPX should be affirmatively considered as an examination complementary to previous examinations.

A Correlation between the Year Five Medical Students' Scores on Written Examinations of Clinical Sciences and the Scores on OSCE / 医学教育

Recently, as the practical training for clinical skills are extensively introduced in the curriculum of medical schools, the objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) is taken to assess the clinical skills of trainees. However, there have been very few papers mentioned about correlation between scores on a written examination of the clinical sciences and those on OSCE in Japan. In this study, to compare these of two kinds of examinations in year five medical students of Yamaguchi University, their scores of the stations of OSCE and those of the written examinations of clinical sciences which seemed to correlate stations of skill's examinations were studied statistically. As a result, there were no statistical significances in each scores between skill's evaluations and written tests. This results that these two examinations estimated the different abilities of students on the taxonomy of medical education. Moreover, OSCE is reconfirmed to be identical as an evaluative method of clinical skills. Now, new medical educational systems should be introducted for the training of skills and attitude for students.