| SHORT COMMUNICATION |
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| Year : 2021 | Volume
: 9
| Issue : 1 | Page : 42-43 |
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Scope of long-case examination as an assessment tool among medical students and the way forward
Saurabh R Shrivastava1, Prateek Saurabh Shrivastava2
1 Medical Education Unit Coordinator and Member of the Institute Research Council, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth – Deemed to be University, Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu, India
2 Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth – Deemed to be University, Chengalpattu, Tamil Nadu, India
Correspondence Address:
Dr. Saurabh R Shrivastava
PGDHHM, DHRM, FCS, ACME, Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Shri Sathya Sai Medical College and Research Institute, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth (SBV) – Deemed to be University, Thiruporur - Guduvancherry Main Road, Ammapettai, Nellikuppam, Chengalpet District - 603108, Tamil Nadu
India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/jihs.jihs_35_20
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Assessment in medical education remains the key driving force for learning and ensures gradual progression by means of bridging the lacuna among medical students. Bedside teaching and assessing the same with the help of either long-case or short-case examinations is a well-known and frequently employed practice in clinical training. Although long-case examinations have been in use for multiple decades, we have to accept the drawbacks of these assessments that include allocation of marks on the basis of unstructured questions, the presence of inter-case variability, and non-adherence to the blueprint which, in turn, results in a haphazard selection of cases for examination. Further, the possibility of a strict or lenient examiner and the simultaneous presence of factors like patients (cooperative or non-cooperative patients or nature of illness in the patient) or students (liked or not liked by the teacher – the issue of being biased) complicates the entire process of assessment. Despite the presence of these constraints, long-case examinations generally have high face validity and give the opportunity for the student to evaluate the concerns of patients from all dimensions. In conclusion, long-case examinations remain an effective tool to assess the skills of medical students. However, we should aim to minimize its limitations and then use it for the benefit of medical students, and thus, direct observation and use of a standardized checklist have been advocated.
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