Exit exam for interns: Lessons learnt and challenges for the future

Introduction: India has witnessed a steady rise in the number of medical colleges in the last two decades. Despite fears about the quality of medical education, the competency of the graduates is not usually assessed by an objective examination at the end of internship. Aim: The aim was to assess the knowledge, skill and attitude levels of interns of a 15 year old private medical college by conducting an exit exam, after completion of internship. Material and Methods: Eighty interns took the exam which was in an OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Examination) format. There were 12 stations for assessment of knowledge and eight supervised stations for assessment of skills and attitude. All the questions were from the ‘must know' areas and covered common clinical conditions and emergencies. Results:The average marks obtained by the interns in the knowledge and skill round were 48.5% and 49.5% respectively. Overall only 45% of the interns responded correctly to at least 50% of the ‘must know' areas. Conclusion: There is an urgent need to reevaluate the teaching-learning process in order to produce doctors who are competent to function as physicians of first contact.