Students transferring into an American medical school. Remediating their deficiencies

Thirty US citizen foreign-trained medical students (USFMS) and eleven US-trained medical students (USMS) were accepted with advanced standing to the University of Arizona College of Medicine (UACM) in September 1978. Each student was required to meet predetermined mastery criteria in physical diagnosis skills during a six-week intensive training program before entering clinical clerkships. On entrance, USFMS showed severe deficiencies in physical examination and medical interviewing skills compared with both USMS and sophomore students at UACM. By the completion of the program, all differences between the USFMS and the USMS were nonsignificant, except for factual knowledge of pathophysiology. The transfer students received lower ratings than the UACM students on preceptorship evaluations and patient write-ups. Deficiencies in clinical skills of USFMS were reduced by a brief, intensive training program characterized by specific mastery criteria.