Year: 2006
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The development of clinical competence is the main \npurpose of medical education. The long road to become clinically \ncompetent starts on the first day of medical school, and every \ninstitution strives to select the best students. The responsibility \nof medical schools is to train those students to become clinically \ncompetent physicians who are highly qualified and specialized \nprofessionals able to function in a constantly changing society that \nputs continuously growing demands on the medical profession. \nUnderstanding clinical competence is therefore crucial not only for \nmedical education, assessment, and licensing examinations, but also \nfor society and its responsibility for the quality of health care. \nHowever, there is little consensus about what clinical competence is \nand how to measure it. A proper definition and a better understanding \nof clinical competence and its components would serve as a criterion \nfor validating medical educational programs and would !\n assure a minimum level of competency at the end of medical school \nand beyond during residency.\nEach of the previous chapters of this thesis highlights different \naspects of clinical competence and its development. In the \nintroductory chapter the lack of consistency in definitions of \nclinical competence is emphasized and a historical overview is given \nto shed light on the variety of definitions used over the last \ndecades. The study presented in Chapter 2 explores the effect of \nlevel of pre-university performance on preclinical and clinical \nperformance. The study in Chapter 3 addresses the impact of clinical \ntraining during clerkships on students’ learning. Specifically, the \nrelationship among the nature and volume of patient encounters, \nquality of supervision, and the learning outcomes were explored. The \nstudy of Chapter 4 is directed at the interaction between knowledge \nand a problem-solving ability during students’ diagnostic problem \nsolving at end-of-clerkship examinations. Chapter 5 focuses on \nclinical competence during clerkships and end-of-clerkship examinatio!\n ns. In this study we explored whether clinical teachers place \ndifferent values on individual components of competence while \nstudents work on the wards or while students are examined during \nclerkship examinations. The study reported in Chapter 6 investigates \nhow recall of case information changed for different expertise groups \nunder different conditions, while research discussed in Chapter 7 was \nconducted to find out how the selection of case information by \nstudents and doctors during different stages of the diagnostic \nprocess is related to different expertise groups. In the present and \nfinal chapter of this thesis the main findings of all previous \nchapters are summarized and discussed. At the end of this chapter, \nconclusions and suggestions for further research are given.\n
Author: Paul F. Wimmers
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1551466375