PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to assess the clinical experiences (in internal medicine) of medical students, and compare the self-assessment of their competency in clinical skills with the assessment of instructors through the OSCE. METHODS: The frequency of clinical experiences had by medical students and the self-assessments of their confidence in clinical skills were assessed by questionnaires administered before the OSCE. 52 medical students participated in the OSCE. After completing the OSCE, they re-evaluated their own performance of 9 clinical skills examined in the OSCE by self-assessment questionnaires. The scores of these self-assessments were compared with the scores given by the instructors. RESULTS: For 19 of 28 clinical skills items listed in the questionnaires, self-assessment of competence by medical students correlated with the frequency of performance (p<0.05). For 9 clinical skills in the OSCE, the self-assessment scores did not correlate significantly with the instructors' assessment scores (p>0.05). However, these 9 clinical skills scores from the instructors correlated significantly with the clerkship evaluation scores and the final semester grade point averages (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: There was a significant association between frequency of performance and self-assessed competency, which did not correlate significantly with the instructors' evaluation through the OSCE.
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