We evaluated the interview skills of 46 sixth year medical students (32 men, 14 women) in our outpatient clinic. Six items were evaluated, including the manner in which students responded to patients, the number of times students interrupted patients' statements with closed-ended questions, and the extent to which students maintained eye contact with patients. We found that students interrupted patients every 46.2 seconds on average, and often did not make eye contact with tha patients. It became clear that, although we teach medical interview skills to students, students do not learn these skills very well. We suggest that in order to properly educate medical students, close cooperation between departments is needed.

We evaluated basic surgical skills in students using the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). The study was conducted on 101 sixth-grade medical students (67 males, 34 females) at Kawasaki Medical School in 1993. Theme A (tying of a silk suture) was given to 44 students, and theme B (tying of nylon suture using surgical instruments) was given to 57 students. The following items were evaluated (1) handling of surgical instruments, (2) suturing, (3) knot tying, and (4) suture removal. The average score for theme B was slightly lower than that for theme A. The average score for knot tying was lower than scores for the other items. Thus, it was revealed that all students were not good at tying knots. These scores for minor surgery correlated with the scores for other skills as evaluated by the OSCE. In conclusion, the OSCE appears to be an appropriate method for evaluating basic surgical skills.