Will clinical signs become myth? Developing structured Signs Circuits to improve medical students’ exposure to and confidence examining clinical signs

Figures & data

Table 1. Pre- and post-course quantitative feedback regarding physical examiatnion

	Pre-course mean Likert Score [^Citation1–5]	Post-course mean Likert Score [^Citation1–5]	T-Stat	p-Value	95% Confidence interval for difference of means
I feel very comfortable examining patients	3.52	3.87	2.45	0.01	0.07–0.63
I feel very comfortable consistently eliciting clinical signs	2.84	3.68	5.62	<0.01	0.54–1.13
Clinical signs are a pivotal part of diagnosis	4.33	4.71	2.30	0.02	0.05–0.70

Table 2. Pre-course exposure to select clinical signs

Clinical signs	Observed pre-course (% total)
Cardiovascular
Aortic stenosis	81%
Aortic regurgitation	43%
Mitral regurgitation	57%
Mitral stenosis	32%
Tricuspid regurgitation	13%
Raised JVP	59%
S3 heart sound	16%
S4 heart sound	10%
Respiratory
Crepitations	68%
Bronchial breathing	50%
Deviated trachea	6%
Abdominal
Hepatomegaly	50%
Splenomegaly	27%
Spider naevi	51%
Scleric icterus	24%
Neurology
Hypertonia	78%
Hypotonia	56%
Hyperreflexia	52%
Babinski’s sign	27%

Figure 1. Students experience of previous bedside teaching. Self-graded by likert scale 1–5 (strongly disagree to strongly agree).

Figure 2. Post-course self-reporting on the impact of the Signs Circuits on students. Self-graded by likert scale 1–5 (strongly disagree to strongly agree).