2011 - UCSF School of Medicine - University of California, San ...

UCSF Education Day 2011immediately prior to a clinical skills examination leads toimproved communication skills.Background: Web-based standardized patient (SP)modules have been associated with improvement inmedical students’ history taking and physicalexamination skills on clinical performance examinations(CPX). However, the use of such modules has not yetcorrelated with improvement in students’ communicationskills.Methods: This was a prospective observational studyinvolving fourth year medical students in academic year2008-2009. A 90 minute web-based module consistingof three simulated clinical encounters between a medicalstudent and SP was narrated by an expert clinician andSP to explain expected clinical skills behaviors. All 147students were notified one month prior to the CPX andencouraged to review the learning module prior to theexamination. The outcome measure was CPX scores.Results: 106 students (72%) viewed the web-basedmodule prior to the CPX and logged into the module fora mean of 86.4 minutes. There was no difference inUSMLE Step 1 or clerkship summary scores betweenstudents who chose to use the module and those whodid not. Students who watched the module performedsignificantly higher on the CPX communication score(+2.61%, p