Application of Mini-CEX combined with student-standardized patient in rehabilitation medicine residents’ standardized training

Background: The mini clinical evaluation exercise (Mini-CEX) is widely recognized as an effective measure for standardized training for resident physicians (RST) in European and American countries. However, in China, the Mini-CEX evaluation is limited to clinical patients. No previous studies have examined the effectiveness and correct methods of Mini-CEX, combined with student-standardized patient (SSP) evaluation, in rehabilitation medicine education. Therefore, this study aimed to explore whether combining Mini-CEX and SSP can improve resident physicians’ clinical and communication skills. Methods: The sample comprised students who received standardized training for resident physicians from January 2022 to December 2023. Before the training began, the observation and control groups underwent Mini-CEX evaluation. During the training period, the observation group underwent Mini-CEX combined with SSP evaluation every two weeks, while the control group was not evaluated. Before leaving the department after the eighth week, the resident physicians’ learning outcomes were uniformly evaluated, including theoretical knowledge, Mini-CEX, clinical thinking ability, and specialized skill operation ability evaluation. A questionnaire survey method was adopted to collect students’ evaluations of teaching. Results: The Mini-CEX combined with the SSP group showed a significant improvement in resident physicians’ comprehensive clinical ability (p<0.05). Compared with traditional Mini-CEX, resident physicians made greater progress in clinical thinking and patient communication skills (p<0.05). The survey results indicated that resident physicians have a high level of satisfaction with the evaluation of Mini-CEX combined with SSP. Conclusion: Mini-CEX combined with SSP is an effective and reliable evaluation method for rehabilitation resident physician training, which fully emphasizes its advantages in improving students’ clinical abilities.