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The skills needed to do well on the C.S.A. include: history taking, physical exam skills, interpersonal skills and documentation. You will need to be knowledgeable in the areas of the cardiovascular, respiratory/pulmonary, GI, GU, neurologic, musculoskeletal and integumentary systems. You may be asked to work with medical and surgical patients, male and female, adult and pediatric. The exam will consist of 5 patient stations during which you will be asked to perform a focused history and/or focused physical exam, counsel a patient or perform a certain procedure after reading a brief clinical history in the chart outside the room. You will have 15 minutes to complete each task. Following each patient station you will be given 10 minutes to complete a S.O.A.P. note on your patient encounter.

It is required that you contact and meet with your campus dean as soon as possible after the CSA to review your results and identify your strengths and weaknesses. Since the results of the CSA will not be available for at least 2-3 weeks after the exam, it is highly recommended that you do not take the Step 2 Clinical Skills exam until you have received feedback from your dean. If you elect to take the Step 2 exam before the CSA results are ready, you are still required to review your exam results with your dean sometime early in the fourth year.

>>Posted by Matthew Gerde on Tuesday, February 9 2010, 8:48 AM