SynthesisMedical education online2019
How do novices learn physical examination skills? A systematic review of the literature.
Synthesis in Medical education online, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Can educational video resources improve learning when used to augment traditional teaching of clinical examination? A randomized control trial of novice medical students.BMC medical education · 2023Trial
- Effectiveness of non-bedside teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic: a quasi-experimental study.BMC medical education · 2022Trial
- A three-arm single blind randomised control trial of naïve medical students performing a shoulder joint clinical examination.BMC medical education · 2021Trial
- Hybrid Physical Examination: Integrating Peer Feedback with Standardized Patient Encounters.Medical science educator · 2026Article
- Psychological determinants of successful practical teaching: personality traits, self-efficacy, and subjective perception in a hands-on clinical skills course.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Implementation and utilization of Physical Examination Teaching Associate (PETA) programs: a scoping review.Advances in simulation (London, England) · 2026Article
- Consensus on Physical Exam Maneuvers Taught During Undergraduate Medical Education: a Modified Delphi Approach.Medical science educator · 2025Article
- Core and cluster or head to toe?: a comparison of two types of curricula for teaching physical examination skills to preclinical medical students.BMC medical education · 2024Article
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- Vocal pain expression augmentation for a robopatient.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2023Article
- A structured multimodal teaching approach enhancing musculoskeletal physical examination skills among undergraduate medical students.Medical education online · 2022Article
- Will clinical signs become myth? Developing structured Signs Circuits to improve medical students' exposure to and confidence examining clinical signs.Medical education online · 2022Article
- Teaching "medical interview and physical examination" from the very beginning of medical school and using "escape rooms" during the final assessment: achievements and educational impact in Japan.BMC medical education · 2022Article
- Dreyfus scale-based feedback increases the medical student's satisfaction with the complex cluster part of the interviewing and physical examination course and skills' readiness in Taiwan.Journal of educational evaluation for health professions · 2019Article
- Incoming Interns Recognize Inadequate Physical Examination as a Cause of Patient Harm.Journal of medical education and curricular developmentArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPhysical Examination (PE) skills are vital for patient care, and many medical students receive their first introduction to them in their pre-clinical years. A substantial amount of curriculum time is devoted to teaching these skills in most schools. Little is known about the best way to introduce PE skills to novice learners.
objectiveOur objective was to conduct a systematic review of how medical students are first taught PE skills and the evidence supporting these strategies.
designWe searched ERIC, SCOPUS, MEDLINE, PubMed and EMBASE for descriptions of complete PE curricula for novice learners. Inclusion criteria were: (1) English language; (2) subjects were enrolled in medical school and were in the preclinical portion of their training; (3) description of a method to teach physical examination skills for the first time; (4) description of the study population; (5) Description of a complete PE curriculum. We used the Medical Education Research Study Quality Instrument (MERSQI) score to evaluate the quality of evidence provided.
resultsOur search returned 5,418 articles; 32 articles met our inclusion criteria. Two main types of curricula were reported: comprehensive 'head-to-toe' PE curricula (18%) and organ system-based curricula (41%). No studies compared these directly, and only two evaluated trainees' clinical performance. The rest of the articles described interventions used across curricula (41%). Median MERSQI score was 10.1 Interquartile range 8.1-12.4. We found evidence for the use of non-faculty teaching associates, technology-enhanced PE education, and the addition of clinical exposure to formal PE teaching.
conclusionsThe current literature on teaching PE is focused on describing innovations to head-to-toe and organ system-based curricula rather than their relative effectiveness, and is further limited by its reliance on short-term outcomes. The optimal strategy for novice PE instruction remains unknown.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.