摘要：Purpose:This study was to explore the relationship between clinical performance examination (CPX) achievement and epistemological beliefs to investigate the potentials of epistemological beliefs in ill-structured medical problem solving tasks. Methods:We administered the epistemological beliefs questionnaire (EBQ) to fourth-year medical students and correlated the results with their CPX scores. The EBQ comprised 61 items reflecting five belief systems:certainty of knowledge,source of knowledge, rigidity of learning,ability to learn,and speed of knowledge acquisition. The CPX included scores for history taking,physical examination,and patient-physician interaction. Results:The higher epistemological beliefs group obtained significantly higher scores on the CPX with regard to history taking and patient-physician interaction. The epistemological beliefs scores on certainty of knowledge and source of knowledge were significantly positively correlated with patient-physician interaction. The epistemological beliefs scores for ability to learn were significantly positively correlated with those for history taking,physical examination,and patient-physician interaction. Conclusion:Students with more sophisticated and advanced epistemological beliefs stances used more comprehensive and varied approaches in the patient-physician interaction. Therefore,educational efforts that encourage discussions pertaining to epistemological views should be considered to improve clinical reasoning and problem-solving competence in the clinic setting.
关键词：Clinical competence;Epistemological beliefs;Medical history taking;Physical examination;Physician-patient relations
