[Clinical examination in general practice--a consulatation. Experiences after the first examination]

In 1994 the first examination in general practice was arranged for graduate students at the medical school in Bergen. The examination consisted of a written part, and an oral, clinical examination. We report some experiences and reflections concerning the latter. Patients with commonly occurring health disorders were recruited from the practices of internal and external examiners. The performance of the student was assessed according to the skills in respect of clinical issues, communication, consultation tasks, and theoretical matters. The correspondence between the assessment of different examinators was very good, and the marks were well distributed. The students' evaluation and our own experiences lead to the conclusion that this kind of examination seems to be suitable for differentiated testing of skills and knowledge in general practice.