Pre-internship Nigerian medical graduates lack basic musculoskeletal competency

Abstract

Purpose Our aim was to assess the basic musculoskeletal competency of pre-internship graduates from Nigerian medical schools. Methods We administered the Freedman and Bernstein basic musculoskeletal competency examination to 113 pre-internship graduates from seven Nigerian medical schools over a three year period from 2008 to 2010 at the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital. Five specialist residents took the examination to test criteria relevance. Results All graduates failed this test, obtaining scores ranging from 7% to 67%. The duration of the orthopaedic posting, and observation of operative fracture fixation, were not significant determinants of the score. The two final-year specialist residents each had a marginal pass in the examination.Conclusion Basic musculoskeletal competency among preinternship Nigerian medical-school graduates is inadequate.

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The Inadequacy of Musculoskeletal Knowledge in Graduating Medical Students in the United Kingdom

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A global perspective on the challenges and opportunities in learning about rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases in undergraduate medical education

“…Surveys of students, graduates, PCPs and even young rheumatologists consistently reveal low confidence in MSK competencies [16,[37][38][39][40]. Furthermore, studies assessing RMD knowledge and clinical skills using the validated Freedman and Bernstein examination demonstrated poor competence among graduates and students irrespective of where they were educated [37,[41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] (Table 2). Alarming deficiencies in the RMD knowledge of junior doctors and PCPs have also been widely reported [39,43,[52][53][54].…”

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