The Patient Findings Questionnaire: one solution to an important standardized patient examination problem.
PURPOSE: To describe the Patient Findings Questionnaire (PFQ) and compare its scores and pass/fail decisions with those obtained from standardized patient (SP) examination checklists. METHOD: Checklists and PFQs were used to assess data acquisition by 790 second-year medical students. PFQs were composed of multiple-choice items designed to determine whether examines had acquired key historical patient information. RESULTS: At the item level, the two measurement methods yielded the same decisions about data acquisition on 88% of observed occasions. Most discrepancies (74%) involved SPs rating examinees as having elicited information when the examinee was unable to answer the associated PFQ item. At the test level, the two instruments yielded the same pass/fail decision on a large majority of occasions. CONCLUSIONS: The PFQ and checklist yielded similar data acquisition scores and decisions at the item and test levels. Replacement of the checklist with the PFQ should result in examinees' behaving in a way more consistent with recommended interviewing practices.