An exploratory study into the teaching of clinical examination skills in advanced practice

Clinical examination skills are vital for the accurate assessment and diagnosis of patients. These skills also allow clinicians to differentiate between pathology requiring investigation or treatment and normal anatomy or physiology. This allows clinicians to avoid unnecessary tests and to be able to reassure a patient that their symptoms do not require treatment. However, an incomplete or faulty clinical examination can lead to missed diagnoses and patient harm. Although comprehensive clinical examination skills training is provided in the undergraduate curriculum of medical schools in the UK, little is known in relation to the teaching provided for nurses and allied health professions working in advanced practice roles. This survey sought to explore this phenomenon and uncover clinicians' experiences with regard to being taught a selection of specific clinical examination skills in theory and in practice, those skills being the core system examinations (respiratory, cardiovascular and peripheral vascular, abdominal, central and peripheral nervous systems) and a number of focused examinations (digital rectal and examination, thyroid, breast and genital examination for males and females). The findings demonstrate a concerning variability of educational experiences and a lack of educational coverage of some of the basic clinical examination skills in both theoretical and practical terms. These findings provide an insight into areas of future higher education curricula development as well as workplace mentoring and learning.