Journal
MEDICAL TEACHER
Volume 44, Issue 11, Pages 1277-1282Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/0142159X.2022.2093177
Keywords
Assessment; medicine; clinical
Funding
- National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Cambridge Biomedical Research Centre [BRC-1215-20014]
- NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) West Midlands
- Medical Schools Council
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This study investigated the impact of physical attributes (tattoos, purple hair, accent) of candidates on patient scoring. The results showed that candidates with tattoos and purple hair received higher scores from patients compared to candidates without physical attributes. Accent did not have an impact on the scoring.
Background We have previously shown that clinical examiners' scoring is not negatively impacted when a candidate has a tattoo, unnatural hair colour, or a regional accent. We investigated whether these physical attributes in exam candidates impact patient scoring. Methods Simulated/real patients were randomly assigned to watch five videos of simulated candidate performances of a cranial nerve examination: clear fail, borderline, good, 'clear pass' without an attribute, and 'clear pass' with one of the attributes (tattoo, purple hair, accent). Participants scored domains of communication and professionalism. We compared scores for the clear pass candidates with and without attributes. Results One hundred and eighty three patients participated. The total scores for the candidates with tattoos and purple hair were higher than the candidate with no physical attribute (p < 0.001). For the candidate with a Liverpool English accent no difference was identified (p = 0.120). Conclusions The presence of certain physical attributes (tattoos or purple hair) was associated with higher scores given by patients to candidates in a simulated physical examination station.
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