Correlation between physician assistant students’ performance score of history taking and physical exam documentation and scores of Graduate Record Examination clinical year grade point average and score of Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam in the United States

摘要

Learning to perform and document patient history taking and physical exam (H&P) entails a major component of the first year academic education of physician assistant (PA) students at Wayne State University, USA. The H&P is summative of multiple aspects of PA education, and students must master communication with patients and other health care providers. The objectives of this study were first, to determine if there was a correlation between scores on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) component testing and scores on graded H&Ps. The second objective was to identify a correlation between proficiency with H&P documentation and academic and clinical year grade point average (GPA) and Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE) score.