Performance of US Citizen Caribbean Medical School Graduates on the American Board of Internal Medicine Certifying Examinations, 1984 to 1987

Our purpose was to compare the certifying examination performance of graduates of Caribbean medical institutions with graduates of other medical institutions. Specifically, the performance of US and Canadian medical school graduates, non-US citizen foreign medical school graduates, US citizen non-Caribbean foreign medical school graduates, and US citizen Caribbean medical school graduates was compared for the 1984 to 1987 certifying examinations of the American Board of Internal Medicine. In addition, program directors’ ratings of candidates’ clinical competence were compared for these four groups. Results indicated that US citizen Caribbean medical school graduates did not perform as well as any of the other groups on the examination. This is consistent with the findings of other studies of Caribbean medical students, conducted earlier in their training. The current study expands on that work by indicating that deficits in medical knowledge, apparent in undergraduate examinations, are also evident at the end of specialty training. The results of this study also indicate that graduates of Caribbean schools received lower ratings of overall clinical competence and of all of its components, except for humanistic qualities. © 1989, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Duke Scholars

Author George David Webster Urology