Assessing medical students' performance in core competencies using multiple admission programs for colleges and universities: From the perspective of multi-source feedback

Background : Since 1994, Taiwanese medical universities have employed the multiple application method comprising recommendations and screening and admission application. The purpose of this study is to examine whether medical students admitted using different admission programs gave different performances. Methods : To evaluate the six core competencies for medical students proposed by Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), this study employed various assessment tools, including student opinion feedback, multi-source feedback (MSF), course grades, and examination results.MSF contains self-assessment scale, peer assessment scale, nursing staff assessment scale, visiting staff assessment scale, and chief resident assessment scale. In the subscales, the CronbachEs alpha were higher than 0.90, indicating good reliability. Research participants consisted of 182 students from the School of Medicine at Chang Gung University. Results : Regarding studentsE average grade for the medical ethics course, the performance of students who were enrolled through school recommendations exceeded that of students who were enrolled through the National College University Entrance Examination (NCUEE) p = 0.011), and all considered teamwork as the most important. Different entry pipelines of students in the communication, work attitude, medical knowledge, and teamwork assessment scales showed no significant difference. The improvement rate of the students who were enrolled through the school recommendations was better than that of the students who were enrolled through the N CUEE in the professional skills, medical core competencies, communication, and teamwork projects of self-assessment and peer assessment scales. However, the students who were enrolled through the NCUEE were better in the professional skills, medical core competencies, communication, and teamwork projects of the visiting staff assessment scale and the chief resident assessment scale. Conclusion : Collectively, the performance of the students enrolled through recommendations was slightly better than that of the students enrolled through the NCUEE, although statistical significance was found in certain parts of the grades only.