The relationship between assessment measures at Newcastle Medical School (Australia) and performance ratings during...

This study examined the utility of the domain assessment measures used in the final 2 years at Newcastle medical school in predicting performance ratings in the first year of postgraduate training (internship). Performance ratings were obtained from the clinical supervisors of two graduating classes of the University of Newcastle medical students during their five terms of internship. Three or more ratings were obtained from 57% of interns. Univariate analysis indicated that scores for three of the five domains (professional skills; identification, prevention and management of illness; self-directed learning) were significantly positively correlated with intern performance ratings. Multivariate analysis indicated that only the domain assessing identification, prevention and management of illness was predictive of higher intern performance ratings. The results support the notion that there is some value in the domain assessment model used at Newcastle in predicting the performance of junior doctors.