Podiatric Resident Performance on a Basic Competency Examination in Musculoskeletal Medicine

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Musculoskeletal Medicine
• Podiatric Surgery

Background:

• Previous studies indicated potential inadequacies in musculoskeletal medicine preparation during medical school.
• A basic competency examination in musculoskeletal medicine has been used to assess residents across various medical specialties.
• Podiatric surgery residents' performance on this examination had not been previously assessed.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the performance of podiatric surgical residents on a basic competency examination in musculoskeletal medicine.
• To determine podiatric surgical residency directors' perceptions of the importance of specific subject areas within musculoskeletal medicine.
• To identify potential areas for improvement in podiatric surgical education.

Main Methods:

• 117 podiatric surgical residents from 15 programs completed a 25-question musculoskeletal medicine examination.
• Resident performance was analyzed overall and on questions rated as highly important by directors.
• Statistical analysis compared performance between junior and senior residents, and those with/without orthopedic rotations.

Main Results:

• Residents achieved a mean score of 60.32% ± 12.60% on the examination.
• Performance improved to 84.92% ± 11.93% on questions deemed highly important (≥8/10) by directors.
• No significant difference in scores was found between senior and junior residents, or between those who had completed an orthopedics rotation and those who had not.

Conclusions:

• Podiatric surgical residents' overall performance on the musculoskeletal medicine competency exam was comparable to general surgery and internal medicine residents.
• Residents demonstrated higher proficiency in areas identified as highly important by program directors.
• Findings suggest a potential need to enhance general musculoskeletal medicine education within podiatric surgical curricula to align with other specialties like orthopedics and physical therapy.