Survey on the clinical skills of osteopathic medical students

As part of the standard-setting methods used by the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners for its Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination clinical skills performance evaluation (COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE), a self-administered survey was distributed electronically and by mail to deans of colleges of osteopathic medicine, directors of graduate medical education programs, osteopathic medical students, and experts chosen demographically to represent osteopathic physicians in the United States. Groups were asked to rate fourth-year osteopathic medical students and interns on their clinical skills and acceptable pass rates and expected pass rates on the COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE. The surveys were not used systematically to compute the passing standards but to provide additional support for their validity. The viewpoints of the deans differed from those of the students, osteopathic graduate medical education program directors, and experts regarding clinical skills proficiencies and acceptable pass rates. However, all of the groups agreed that, on average, some students and interns do not have adequate clinical skills. These results provide additional support for requiring acceptable performance on a comprehensive clinical skills examination before admission to osteopathic graduate medical education programs.