Audit Upon Graduation: UKM House Officers’ Competencies

Assessment of graduates’ competencies is an important part of continuous quality improvement of the medical curriculum and is aimed to ensure that graduates are well prepared. High quality medical education is vital to ensure high quality medical care. A cross sectional study was carried out in mid 2010 to investigate the UKM medical graduates’ perception about their competencies on different broad areas. Sample size consisted of 112 graduates who participated in this study. Data was collected by administering a questionnaire that contained different attributes of graduates’ confidence level in different broad area of competencies. Rating scale used in the questionnaire against each of the competencies was ranged from 1-10. The highest mean score obtained was 7.69 with SD 1.33, accredited to appropriate attitude, ethical understanding and legal responsibilities of the graduates while the lowest mean score was 7.26 with SD 1.26 that was accredited to the patient management skills of the graduate. The other components of skills measured were self directed learning, communication skills, clinical skills, personal development, patient investigation, appropriate information handling skills and appropriate decision making skills, clinical reasoning and judgement. UKM graduates perceived that they were well prepared for their role as house officers. However educational managers, especially the clinical teachers need to give particular attention to improve the patient management skills of the graduates.