Table 2 A Comparison of Orthopaedic and Internal Medicine Program Directors’ Perceptions of the USMLE Step 1 Pass/Fail Transition: Single-answer and Multiple-answer Multiple-choice Responses
Orthopaedics- N (%) | Internal Medicine-N (%) | p-value | |
|---|---|---|---|
How will changing to a pass/fail Step 1 affect medical students interested in orthopaedics and internal medicine? | |||
Allow students to focus more on learning medicine rather than studying for Step 1 | 13 (22.4%) | 32 (25.6%) | 0.641 |
Encourage more research experiences | 23 (39.7%) | 12 (9.6%) | < 0.001* |
Encourage more leadership/extracurriculars | 16 (27.6%) | 23 (18.4%) | 0.158 |
Allow students to pursue more hobbies/self-development | 6 (10.3%) | 27 (21.6%) | 0.065 |
Encourage students to attend more audition electives | 34 (58.6%) | 36 (28.8%) | < 0.001* |
Encourage applicants to apply to more residency programs | 39 (67.2%) | 71 (56.8%) | 0.180 |
Encourage applicants to apply to other specialties in addition to their primary specialty of interest | 27 (46.6%) | 49 (39.2%) | 0.348 |
What are the future implications on residency applications and medical education? | |||
With the change to pass/fail Step 1, medical schools should adopt a graded pre-clinical curriculum | 37 (63.8) | 65 (52.0) | 0.810 |
With the change to pass/fail Step 1, there should be a cap on the number of residency applications a medical student can submit | 42 (72.4) | 69 (55.2) | 0.198 |