Boston University Medical Campus
Office of Medical Education

• evaluate the students’ ability to interview and communicate with patients
• assess the students’ ability to take a complete History of Present Illness
• assess the students’ ability to perform two skills of the Physical Exam
• gauge the students’ ability to synthesize data in the History of Present Illness
• provide feedback to students on these clinical skills
• measure the skills of the class as a whole such that individual and curricular deficiencies can be accessed
• create the opportunity to experience a timed clinical skills examination that is similar to the End of Second Year Assessment (EOSYA), End of Third Year Assessment (EOTYA) and the USMLE step 2CS exam

Overview:

The exam takes place at the Clinical Skills & Simulation Center on a series of dates in May. It draws on materials learned in ICM-1 Fall, ICM 1 Spring and IP. There is one case played by standardized patients trained by the Office of Medical Education faculty. Each student will be in the Clinical Skills and Simulation Center for approximately one hour on their scheduled day.

The schedule is as follows:

• 20 minutes orientation and instructions
• 20 minutes with patient to interview for HPI and do the instructed PE tasks
• 10 minutes write up
• 7 minutes feedback from standardized patient
• 5 minutes to evaluate EOFYA experience

Students will be expected to:

• Introduce themselves to the patient and use the patient’s name
• Use appropriate interview and communication techniques (For example: start with a series of open-ended questions and gradually move to more targeted ones. Avoid medical jargon, show empathy where appropriate etc.)
• Conduct a patient-centered interview (What are the patient’s concerns? What does s/he think might be causing the symptoms? Etc.)
• Obtain the History of Present Illness including the 7 Cardinal Features of the Symptom
• Find out about the Past History, Medications, Allergies Habits and Family History as it might pertain to the History of Present Illness
• Wash Hands (or use sanitizer) before and after conducting the assigned part of the Physical Exam
• Perform the parts of the Physical Exam as instructed at orientation
• Attend to patient comfort throughout the examination
• BRIEFLY summarize for the patient what you think might be going on
• End the encounter appropriately
• Type “write-up” on computer based on interaction. This will not be a narrative write up but will be fill in the blank as instructed
• Participate in feedback with standardized patient