Can Incoming Interns Be Entrusted to Recognize Medical Emergencies? Implementation of a Vignette-Based Cross-Cover...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Clinical Skills Assessment
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Recognizing urgent clinical situations and knowing when to seek assistance are critical skills for medical interns.
• Assessing interns' ability to identify urgent scenarios remains a significant challenge in medical education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore graduating medical students' ability to determine the urgency of medical cross-cover scenarios.
• To identify factors associated with medical students' ability to accurately assess clinical urgency.

Main Methods:

• Sixty senior medical students and 28 experts assessed 4 clinical vignettes with multiple cross-cover scenarios.
• Participants rated scenario urgency, comfort level, and likelihood of bedside evaluation and resident notification.
• Student performance was categorized based on urgency estimation accuracy.

Main Results:

• A clear differentiation in urgency estimation ability was observed among students.
• Students who underestimated urgency were less likely to evaluate patients at the bedside or notify their resident.
• No significant differences were found in medical knowledge quiz scores or self-reported comfort levels.

Conclusions:

• Incoming interns demonstrate variability in recognizing urgent clinical scenarios.
• This variability exists independently of their medical knowledge and confidence levels.
• Developing effective methods to assess and improve this critical skill is essential for intern training.