Longitudinal assessment in an undergraduate longitudinal integrated clerkship: The mini Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mCEX) profile

Figures & data

Table

Practice points

Feedback is most strongly related to performance during the development of clinical skills – mCEX feedback should be concentrated at this time. Allowing students to complete as many mCEX as they chose (over a required number) to attain top marks does not skew final grade, but does encourage clinical behaviour. Students chose hard markers when they are in positive mentoring relationships, and when they are in control of developing their own clinical skill.

Table 1.  Number of mCEX per category of complexity

Complexity	Number	Percentage
Average	3836	67.4
High	987	17.3
Low	646	11.3
Unstated	218	3.8

Table 2.  Number of mCEX per clinical discipline

Discipline	Number	Percent
General practice	920	16.2
Ophthalmology	452	7.9
Internal medicine	1058	18.6
Cancer	457	8.0
Obs & Gynae	985	17.3
Paediatrics	1049	18.4
Surgery	765	13.4
Total	5686	100.0

Figure 1. The number of assessments completed by differing types of assessor.

Table 3.  Grades given by differing types of assessor

Assessor type	N	Mean	SE	95% CI – lower	95% CI – upper
JMO	430	8.2202	0.05231	8.1174	8.3230
RMO	543	7.71	0.04202	7.6281	7.7932
GP-Generalist	3136	7.4699	0.01839	7.4338	7.5060
Specialist	1197	7.079	0.02837	7.0234	7.1348
Total	5306	7.4672	0.01455	7.4387	7.4957

Table 4.  Marks given during the initial formative and subsequent clinical development phases in the academic years 2008–2010

Phase	Number	Average	SD	t-test
Formative	1454	7.12	1.03	16.34 p < 0.000
Summative	4231	7.64	1.00

Figure 2. The month-by-month progression of mCEX marks over the academic year.

Table 5.  Marks given over the course of the academic year

mCEX	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov
Average	6.74	7.20	7.23	7.54	7.54	7.94	7.53	7.70	7.72	7.43

Figure 3. Distribution of excess submitted mCEX.