Structured oral interview. One way to identify family physicians' educational needs.
OBJECTIVE: To design and test a structured oral interview that would elicit information on the educational needs of physicians in order to help them plan individualized continuing education. DESIGN: Seven different sets of problems were prepared, each including 40 cases, of which 26 are common. Each pilot test candidate was interviewed by two physician-interviewers during a 1-day session. After each answer, candidates were told the predetermined correct answer. PARTICIPANTS: Six candidates were selected at random from among Montreal physicians aged 50 and older with no hospital privileges. All had to have no history of professional complaints or prosecution and to be unknown to the interviewers. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Inter-rater reliability and perceived difficulty of the cases. RESULTS: Candidates rated the interview process and cases used pertinent, credible, and not too difficult. Candidates' performance level was about 50%. Agreement between interviewers averaged 91.2%. CONCLUSIONS: A structured oral interview appears to be a credible instrument for helping determine practising physicians' deficiencies in clinical knowledge and reasoning.