STRUCTURED ORAL INTERVIEW - ONE-WAY TO IDENTIFY FAMILY PHYSICIANS EDUCATIONAL-NEEDS

OBJECTIVE To design and test a structured oral interview that would el icit information on the educational needs of physicians in order to he lp them plan individualized continuing education. DESIGN Seven differe nt sets of problems were prepared, each including 40 cases, of which 2 6 are common. Each pilot test candidate was interviewed by two physici an-interviewers during a 1-day session. After each answer, candidates were told the predetermined correct answer. PARTICIPANTS Six candidate s were selected at random from among Montreal physicians aged 50 and o lder with no hospital privileges. All had to have no history of profes sional complaints or prosecution and to be unknown to the interviewers . MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Inter-rater reliability and perceived difficul ty of the cases. RESULTS Candidates rated the interview process and ca ses used pertinent, credible, and not too difficult Candidates' perfor mance level was about 50%. Agreement between interviewers averaged 91. 2%. CONCLUSIONS A structured oral interview appears to be a credible i nstrument for helping determine practising physicians' deficiencies in clinical knowledge and reasoning.