Enhancing physician assistant student clinical rotation evaluations with the RIME scoring format: A retrospective 3-year analysis

Purpose: This article describes a 3-year retrospective analysis of student clinical rotation evaluations using the Reporter-Interpreter-Manager-Educator (RIME) scoring format. The intent of the analysis was to assess scoring trends to determine whether students with high scores on the Physician Assistant National Certifying Exam (PANCE) also achieved high RIME scores on clinical rotations. Methods: The top and bottom quartiles of PANCE scores were identified for the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center’s physician assistant (PA) classes of 2010-2012 (n = 106). RIME scores for the top and bottom quartiles of students (n = 54) also were identified. RIME scores for the same cohort of students were analyzed using the top and bottom quartiles of students’ PANCE scores. Results: The Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank test revealed that students with top quartile PANCE scores received a higher aggregate RIME score of 557 compared with the lower quartile of PANCE performers’ score of 520 (P <.03). Results for RIME scoring trends, PANCE scores, and end-of-rotation examination scores are presented. Conclusions: Students from the UT Southwestern Medical Center’s PA classes of 2010-2012 obtained a Manager classification most often (52%), and students with higher PANCE scores also received higher RIME scores on clinical rotations.