A sampling strategy for promoting and assessing medical student retention of physical examination skills.

Background: Skill acquisition and maintenance requires spaced deliberate practice. Assessing medical students' physical examination performance ability is resource intensive. The authors assessed the nature and size of physical examination performance samples necessary to accurately estimate total physical examination skill.
Method: Physical examination assessment data were analyzed from second year students at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago in 2002, 2003, and 2004 (N = 548). Scores on subgroups of physical exam maneuvers were compared with scores on the total physical exam, to identify sound predictors of total test performance.
Results: Five exam subcomponents were sufficiently correlated to overall test performance and provided adequate sensitivity and specificity to serve as a means to prompt continued student review and rehearsal of physical examination technical skills.
Conclusions: Selection and administration of samples of the total physical exam provide a resource-saving approach for promoting and estimating overall physical examination skills retention.