Measuring pediatric resident competencies in adolescent medicine

To compare third-year pediatric resident competence on an adolescent medicine with competence in treating younger children.

The participants were third-year residents (2010 [n = 24] and 2011 [n = 23]) at University of Colorado School of Medicine. Resident competence was measured in the domains of professionalism, communication, and history-taking skills in a multicase Objective Structured Clinical Examination.

Percent correct scores in professionalism, history-taking, and communication skills on the adolescent case ranked in the bottom half of cases in both years. T-tests comparing mean score difference between the adolescent case and pediatric cases combined were statistically significant for professionalism (79.57 ± 4.15 vs. 89.51 ± 14.14, p = .01) and history taking (66.27 ± 11.02 vs. 75.10 ± 18.40, p = .05).

Resident's history taking addressed immediate issues but not public health issues with adolescents. The professionalism findings suggest that residents engage in less patient-centered care when caring for adolescents, even while their communication skills remain on par.