Evaluating validity of current criteria for judgment passing ER rotation among internee medical students

•Previous studies have shown that the results of clinical tests in emergency medicine and other clinical education courses do not correlate accurately with a medical student's degree of confidence in performing tasks and their readiness for future career.•Validity and authenticity of clinical test in emergency medicine and other clinical education course must be evaluated to ensure that these examinations predict whether the students who pass have greater skills and confidence when compared to the ones who fail the rotation.•Self-assessment is an effective tool for evaluating validity of clinical tests.

BackgroundPassing the emergency medicine internship is an essential process for all graduates of medical schools. The main purpose of this study was to evaluate validity of current criteria for judgment passing ER rotation among internee medical students.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, a total of 200 students in the emergency departments (ED) of the teaching hospitals at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) were included. The data were gathered using by a valid self-assessment questionnaire including demographic information and 12-items about the students' level of confidence with the skills and procedures under study. Statistical analyses were done using SPSS (version 22).Results200 medical students participated in this study. A Univariate analysis showed a significant correlation between successfuly completions of training in emergency medicine (passing emergency medicine in past rotations) with some items in self-assessment questionnaire same as knowledge of interns in managing emergency situations (p = 0.009). The Spearman test demonstrated a significant correlation between the duration of emergency training (number of months which interns spent on the emergency training) with the some items in self-assessment questionnaire same as importance of emergency medicine training (p = 0.019).ConclusionsAccording to association between successfully completions of training in emergency medicine and self-assessment questionnaire, it seems current criteria for judgment passing emergency medicine rotation is valid as well as we recommended using self-assessment for evaluating validity of such testes.