National Exit Examination for Medical Students: What Are We Afraid Of?

In an article published in the current issue of the Medical Journal of Australia, Dr Bogda Koczwara, head of Medical Oncology at the Flinders Medical Centre in South Australia, and colleagues, say such a measure could be used to monitor the effects of curriculum change and provide a benchmark for new medical schools that would help medical curricula evolve to better meet society's needs. It would complement rather than replace existing evaluation methods used by individual medical schools.

"Most people would agree the quality of medical school education in Australia is uniformly high. However, there is substantial variability in curriculum content between medical schools, and the process of curriculum change is becoming more challenging because of the continuing expansion of medical knowledge," Dr Koczwara said.

"A national exit examination would help monitor knowledge and skills of medical graduates, providing a uniform standard of assessment for all medical school graduates, as well as foreign graduates applying to work in Australia.

"Such an examination can serve as a monitor of performance of individual medical schools and as a selection tool for postgraduate training programs that may be fairer than letters of recommendation.

But the authors say the exit exam should not become the sole source of evaluation of students and medical schools. Such inflexibility would ignore regional and other differences.

An alternative, indirect measure of medical school outcomes would be feedback from the specialty colleges, but the authors argue this would be cumbersome to coordinate and demand as many resources as a national examination.

The Medical Journal of Australia is a publication of the Australian Medical Association.

CONTACT Dr Bogda KOCZWARA 0416 082 039

Judith TOKLEY, AMA Public Affairs, 0408 824 306 / 02 6270 5471