How prepared are your interns to take calls? Results of a multi-institutional study of simulated pages to prepare medical students for surgery internship

BackgroundThis study evaluated a simulated pages curriculum that was developed to assess communication and clinical decision making in medical students and interns.MethodsA curriculum consisting of 14 simulated pages was administered across 5 institutions to 150 senior medical students. A 3-case subset was administered to interns who did not participate in the curriculum. Six expert surgeons identified critical fails and set passing scores for case-specific assessments using the Graphical Hofstee Method.ResultsParticipants in the curriculum demonstrated superior clinical decision making compared with non-participants across all cases scenarios (P < .01). Average medical student scores for clinical decision making were 46.9%. Global ratings averaged 6.0 for communication and 5.2 for patient care. Passing rates averaged 46%.ConclusionsParticipation in a mock page curriculum improved performance. The performance of participants based on expert standards set for simulated page performance highlight the need for innovative approaches to improve interns' preparedness to take calls.