Development and Validation of an Instrument to Assess the Clinical Performance of Medical Residents

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to develop and to validate an instrument which would assess specific components of the clinical performance of residents regardless of their medical specialty. Such an instrument is necessary if medical schools are to evaluate adequately their educational process. The instrument—The Resident Evaluation Form (REF)—contains 33 rating scales which measure the performance of a resident in nine categories of performance. Validity and reliability data on it were gathered from two study populations of graduates from the Medical School, University of Missouri-Kansas City. The content validity of the REF, the internal structure of the instrument, and the results concerning its reliability and validity all indicate that the REF has the potential to measure clinical performance of medical residents.

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