To explore the guiding effect of clinical skill competition on diagnosis teaching.

A total of 84 undergraduates majoring in clinical medicine of grade 2015 who took part in the clinical skills competition organized by Jining Medical University in January 2020 were selected. The competition comprised 4 parts: medical history collection, physical examination, clinical skill operation, and the interpretation of auxiliary examination result. The average scores, pass rates, and scoring rates for each part of the students were analyzed, and the scores of the students from the upper first-class hospitals and those from non-upper first-class hospitals were compared. The areas requiring improvement in diagnostics teaching were summarized.

The difficulty of the competition questions was moderate, the differentiation degree of the test questions was good, and the internal consistency was strong. The average score of medical history collection was the highest [(71.40±14.49)points], and the average score of operation skill was the lowest [(67.16±18.57)points]. The score rates of physical examination was 47.62%. Among them, the passing rate of laboratory examination was only 42.86%. The scores of medical history collection, physical examination, operation skills and auxiliary examination [(80.48±10.99)points, (78.32±14.31)points, (70.32±18.62)points and (74.55±25.43)points] in upper first-class hospitals were higher than those in non-upper first-class hospitals [(63.16±12.42)points, (59.63±11.35)points, (60.17±20.69)points, (59.77±20.48)points]. The differences were statistically significant (t=3.37, 3.67, 4.72, 2.08, all P<0.05). The scoring rates for doctor-patient communication and humanistic literacy was low at 34.62% and 46.82%, respectively.

The results of clinical skill competition indicate areas that need to be improved in diagnostics teaching, include standardizing physical examination and basic skill operation, improving the ability to interpret auxiliary examination results, and enhancing doctor-patient communication ability and humanistic accomplishment in various operations. Clinical skill competition can offer valuable insights for improving the quality of diagnostics teaching.