Development and evaluation of musculoskeletal performance measures for an objective structured clinical examination

Abstract

This report describes the design, development, pilot testing, and use of a set of four checklists for evaluating selected features of the clinical musculoskeletal examination. The preparation of observational raters to use the checklists in the context of an objective structured clinical examination is also discussed. Data from 480 medical student evaluations over 3 years show that the checklists yield highly reliable data. The checklist data do not correlate with measures of medical student aptitude or with demographic factors. This suggests that the clinically oriented checklists measure a unique feature of medical student achievement.