The Step 2 Clinical-Skills Examination

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of occasional articles on the education of physicians. From their introduction in the late 1800s, medical licensing examinations in the United States included tests of clinical skills. The most recent modification of the bedside examination came in 1961, when instead of having decentralized examiners observe candidates, an examiner from the National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) heard candidates as they took a history and watched them perform a physical examination. Three years later, however, the board analyzed the results of that examination and determined that it failed to produce the degree . . .