How well do faculty evaluate the interviewing skills of medical students?
OBJECTIVE: To study the reliability and validity of using medical school faculty in the evaluation of the interviewing skills of medical students. DESIGN: All second-year University of North Carolina medical students (n = 159) were observed interviewing standardized patients for 5 minutes by one of eight experienced clinical faculty. Interview quality was assessed by a faculty checklist covering questioning style, facilitative behaviors, and specific content. Twenty-one randomly chosen students were videotaped and rated: by the original rater as well as four other raters; by two nationally recognized experts; and according to Roter’s coding dimensions, which have been found to correlate strongly with patient compliance and satisfaction. SETTING: Medical school at a state university in the southeastern United States. PARTICIPANTS: Faculty members who volunteered to evaluate second-year medical students during an annual Objective Structured Clinical Exam. INTERVENTIONS: Interrater reliab