Mini - CEX method: A successful educational experience for evaluation of clinical skills in Persian Medicine PhD students

Background and Purpose:

One of the important activities in the educational process and assessment of student professional performance is proper selection of an evaluation system. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical skills of PhD students in Persian medicine at Iran University of Medical Sciences using the Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise method.
 

This Multiple Time-Series study was conducted in four semesters at the Faculty of Persian Medicine of Iran University of Medical Sciences. The study population consisted of PhD students of the faculty of Persian medicine, in position of internship during the years 2016-2018. Samples were entered into the study by census method in four groups of five people. Data were analyzed by SPSS software version 24.
 

The mean and standard deviation of final scores were different for each group and the final scores of all four groups were significantly different from their midterm scores (p≥0.05). The general satisfaction of students in the first group was calculated as a mean and standard deviation of 5.00±0.000, the second group 4.40±0.548, the third group 3.40±2.191, and the fourth group 4.60±0.894. The mean and standard deviation in general, was 4.35±1.268. Since these numbers are higher than the average of the questionnaire, they show student satisfaction with the test, with the first group having the highest level of satisfaction, and the third group the lowest. In addition, the general satisfaction of the professors with the evaluation was calculated with a mean and standard deviation of 5.14±1.345.
 

This evaluation method increased learning of clinical skills as well as enhancing the satisfaction of professors and especially students due to creation of educational justice and reduced evaluator bias compared with traditional methods.