Use of Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) in medical residency: a scoping review

Abstract

Introduction:

With the evolution of medical education towards competency-based curriculum, the need has emerged to reconfigure curriculum and assessment methods, with increased focus on the professional practice setting, thus leading to the utilization of tools such as the mini-CEX (mini-Clinical Evaluation Exam).

Objective:

To evaluate the use of the mini-CEX strategy as an assessment method in medical residency programs.

Method:

This is a scoping review, and the search performed on PubMed resulted in 578 articles. After applying the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology for inclusion and exclusion, 24 cross-sectional studies were selected.

Results:

The selected articles were based on studies conducted between 1995 and 2021, in various continents and in both clinical and surgical residency programs, including outpatient, inpatient, and emergency settings. The Mini-CEX was shown to be applicable in the context of medical residency, as it is an observational assessment of the care provided by the resident physician in various practice settings such as outpatient clinics, inpatient wards, and emergency departments. It involves a variable observation time ranging from 10 to 40 minutes and allows for the evaluation of various aspects of medical care, including history taking, physical examination, clinical reasoning, counseling, and provides an opportunity for providing feedback on the residents’ performance.

Conclusion:

The mini-CEX is a tool that is easy to implement and promotes a high degree of satisfaction among stakeholders. It could be used more routinely in medical residency programs.

Keywords:
Medical Education; Medical Residency; Educational Assessment