Predictors of Clinical Performance of Child Health Associates

Prediction research related to medical education has been most successful in predicting medical school grades and the ability of medical students to complete their medical education. This study attempted to predict a quality more closely associated with the practice of medicine — the clinical promis...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of allied health 1975, Vol.4 (4), p.25-31
Main Authors: Machotka, Pavel, Ott, John E., Moore, Virginia, Dungy, Claibourne, Fine, Louis
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Child Care
Child Health Services
Clinical Competence
Colorado
Educational Measurement
Health administration
Humans
Psychiatric Status Rating Scales
Psychological Tests
Students, Health Occupations
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Summary:Prediction research related to medical education has been most successful in predicting medical school grades and the ability of medical students to complete their medical education. This study attempted to predict a quality more closely associated with the practice of medicine — the clinical promise of child health associates (CHAs) as shown at the end of their first year of training. Fifty-one CHAs were rated by three to four independent raters (teachers/supervisors) on overall clinical promise: these ratings were then correlated with certain demographic, academic and personality variables measured at the time of entrance into the program. The results demonstrated that previous academic qualifications bore no relation to clinical promise, as evaluated by the raters, among CHAs completing their first year of training; on the other hand, absence of psychological symptoms (as measured in the Minnesota Multiphasic Inventory) and psychological maturity (as measured in the California Psychological Inventory) were highly related to the raters' estimate of clinical promise. Early experience with children (babysitting and caring for younger siblings) also correlated with the perception of clinical promise. The results suggest that, once a certain (still unspecified) level of academic achievement has been reached, candidates for medical school and allied health programs should be selected on variables (personality and background characteristics) that appear to relate to clinical promise rather than variables (previous high grades) which predict only high medical school grades. Further research in this promising area is indicated.
ISSN:0090-7421
1945-404X