RELIABILITY OF CONSUMER ASSESSMENT OF COMMUNICATION-SKILLS IN A POSTGRADUATE FAMILY-PRACTICE EXAMINATION

Examinations of competence which may affect career prospects require m easures which are of high reliability, and which can be demonstrated t o be valid. In a New Zealand summative postgraduate examination of com petence in family practice the doctor-patient communication skills of candidates were assessed by non-medically trained nominees of communit y organizations. The assessments were based on direct observation of t he candidates' encounters with simulated patients. To estimate the rel iability of the consumer examiner, after the examination the examiners re-scored a random selection of videotaped candidate encounters. The test-retest correlations of consumer scoring were demonstrated to be a t a level consistent with adequate examination reliability (confidence interval 0.59-0.98). Consumers may be valuable as a resource for the training and assessment of the communication skills of medical practit ioners.