Improvement in Clinical Performance of Interns and Residents through Clinical Skills Assessment of the Korean Medical Licensing Examination.

PURPOSE To evaluate the clinical performance through the Korean Medical Licensing Examination clinical skills assessment (KMLE CSA) this survey was done. METHODS A survey of 130 interns and residents (46 applicants and 84 non-applicants for the KMLE CSA) at a university hospital in Seoul was conducted in January and February 2012. The data were gathered using a structured and self-administered questionnaire. For the items that assessed the clinical performance of these subjects, we selected 15 items that are mostly frequently used by Delphi's technique, and difficult procedural skills based on the results of medical students' performance. We also used subcomponents of the clinical problems test of the KMLE CSA. RESULTS The total score on the KMLE CSA improved by 1.33 points (a perfect score is 10), 1.49 points for procedural skills, and 0.84 points for clinical problems by multiple regression analysis. The variables that influenced clinical skills were sex (females had 0.86 more points than males), experience in military or public services (1.04 points higher than persons without experience), and type of school (graduates of medical school had 1.41 more points than graduates of professional graduate school). CONCLUSION Implementation of the KMLE CSA improved the clinical performance of medical graduates.