Internship Assessment of Basic Ophthalmologic Knowledge Comparing With Previous Under-graduated Passing Score in Ophthalmologic Course

Abstract

Background: Thai graduated medical students should have basic ophthalmologic knowledge in accordance with standard requirement of the Thai Medical Council. This basic knowledge may be lessened by time.
Objective: To assess the basic ophthalmologic knowledge in internship comparing with their previous knowledge when they were fifth-year medical students at Lampang Medical Education Center.
Material and method: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted on 30 medical interns by testing the basic ophthalmologic knowledge at 10 months after their graduation in 2008. The 40 item-multiple choice questions (MCQ) corresponding with standard requirement of the Thai Medical Council were used. The testing scores were compared with their previous passing scores of MCQ
examination at fifth-year student class by using descriptive statistics and paired-t test.
Results: Twenty-three interns (76.7%) attended this study. The mean testing score was 50.0% (range, 35.0-70.0) and significantly lower than their previous passing scores at fifth-year student class (p<0.001). All of them had individual score less than the obtained score when they were fifth-year medical students.
Conclusion: According to standard requirement of the Thai Medical Council, basic knowledge in ophthalmology in medical interns declined over the time. This declination may leave an impact on medical professions as well.