The challenge required students to enter a mock exam room and check the blood pressure of a patient actor. Students were told the individual was 50 years old, new to the practice and hadn’t seen a physician in several years. Professionals observed each student as they completed the exam, awarding them a pass or fail grade for each of the 11 skills measured.
The results of the challenge were “disappointing,” the study’s authors wrote. Students, on average, performed 4.1 of the 11 skills correctly. Second- through fourth-year medical students performed better overall than first-year students. Older students scored acceptably on five of the 11 skills, on average, while younger students performed four out of 11 of the skills properly.
The authors suggested physicians and medical students should undergo competency testing every six months, at minimum, to ensure they continue to perform basic skills correctly. While automated devices may help accurately measure a patient’s blood pressure, medical schools should improve their clinical training initiatives to ensure the instruction is effective, the authors wrote.
“Given these students represented schools in 37 states, the results suggest it is unlikely that current U.S. medical students are able to perform reliably the skills necessary to measure [blood pressure] accurately,” the study authors wrote. “Our study confirms that automated device use alone will not eliminate many common errors in [blood pressure] measurement.”
To read more about the AMA blood pressure challenge, click here.
More articles on hospital-physician relationships:
First-year enrollment at US medical schools up 28% since 2002
Washington University of St. Louis medical school names senior associate dean of education
Medical school graduate sues licensing exam board for alleged violation of Americans with Disabilities Act
