Creating physicians of the 21st century: assessment of the clinical years

Medical education has been under a constant state of revision for the past several years. The overarching theme of the curriculum revisions for medical schools across the USA has been creating better physicians for the 21st century, with the same end result: graduating medical students at the optimal performance level when entering residency. We propose a robust, thorough assessment process that will address the needs of clerkships, residents, students, and, most importantly, medical schools to best measure and improve clinical reasoning skills that are required for the learning outcomes of our future physicians. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) evaluates and accredits medical school graduates based on competency-based outcomes and the assessment of specialty-specific milestones; however, there is some evidence that medical school graduates do not consistently meet the Level 1 milestones prior to entering/beginning residency, thus starting their internship year underprepared and overwhelmed. Medical schools should take on the responsibility to provide competency-based assessments for their students during the clinical years. These assessments should be geared toward preparing them with the cognitive competencies and skills needed to successfully transition to residency. Then, medical schools can produce students who will ultimately be prepared for transition to their residency programs to provide quality care.