How high residents score on the United States Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step 1 can predict if they’ll pass the pediatric boards, suggests a new University of Florida College of Medicine-Jacksonville study.
The research, published in the current issue of Ambulatory Pediatrics, was conducted in the pediatrics department in the COM-Jacksonville and co-authored by Quimby McCaskill, M.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor of pediatrics and assistant division chief of community pediatrics; Jim Kirk, D.O., an assistant professor of neonatology and pediatrics residency program director; Dawn Barata, residency program manager; Elisa Zenni, M.D., an associate professor of community pediatrics and assistant dean for educational affairs; and Thomas Chiu M.D., M.B.A., interim chair and pediatrics professor. Peter Wludyka, Ph.D., UF and University of North Florida, served as statistical consultant.
The idea for the study came during a residency recruitment meeting in 2005 when members casually debated whether performance on the USMLE scores had any real bearing on a residents’ eventual board performance. “While we believed an ‘anecdotal’ positive relationship existed, we decided that a more scientific look into how all three types of tests (USMLE, in-training exams, and board performance) interrelated was warranted,” McCaskill said.
So, after receiving IRB exemption, the study team reviewed individual residents’ records, dating back to the late 1990s, archived within the residency program. Older information was not available because test scores were not uniformly recorded in the files before then. Plus, the research team wanted to focus on the USMLE test, which wasn’t available until the mid-1990s.
Recognizing the correlation between high USMLE Step 1 scores and passing the board is useful for residents and medical educators alike. First, residency programs – and residents – now can roughly estimate the chances of passing the board based on entrance exams into residency. And, by identifying up front who may be at risk for failing the board, educators can work toward developing individualized learning plans to assist residents with perceived weaknesses in study skills, standardized test taking, etc.
“By addressing these issues at the initiation of training (versus the second or third year), it will be interesting to track over time whether use of more advanced (and resident-specific) learning plans eventually lead to better overall board passage rates – an outcome that would certainly have positive implications upon subsequent resident recruitment,” McCaskill said.