Educational impact of the mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise in resident standardization training: a comparative study between resident and professional degree postgraduate trainees

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to explore differences in the educational impact of the mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mini-CEX) on resident (RE) and professional degree postgraduate (PDPG) trainees, as well as influencing factors, to provide suggestions for hospital managers, trainers, and trainees. METHODS: We performed a retrospective analysis of all scores among first-year resident standardization training trainees registered during 2017 to 2019 at Xinqiao Hospital of Army Medical University, to identify differences in mini-CEX outcomes between REs and PDPGs. RESULTS: We collected data of 154 registered trainees for retrospective analysis, including 57 PDPG trainees and 97 RE trainees. The mean (standard deviation) overall performance score of PDPGs was 84.18 (4.25), which was higher than that of REs (81.48 (3.35)). In terms of domain analysis, PDPG trainees performed significantly better than REs in history taking, physical examination, clinical diagnosis/treatment regimen, and the knowledge examination; communication skills/humanistic care were comparable between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: PDPGs performed better than REs in overall competency, history taking, physical examination, clinical diagnosis/treatment regimen, and the knowledge examination. A better knowledge base, supervisor-dominated one-to-one teaching mode, higher self-esteem and learning goals, and more sophisticated responses to feedback were potential contributors to a superior educational impact of the mini-CEX.