Rates of Skin Cancer Screening and Prevention Counseling by US Medical Residents

Objective To determine factors related to residents’ self-reported skill level for the skin cancer examination (SCE). Design Survey of residents in November 2003. Setting Four US residency programs. Participants Medical residents in family medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, and internal medicine and specialists. Main Outcome Measure Proportion of residents reporting their current skill level for the performance of the SCE. Results Of 454 surveys distributed, 342 residents completed the survey (75.3% response rate). Clinical training for the SCE during residency was infrequent. During residency, 75.8% were never trained in the SCE, 55.3% never observed an SCE, and 57.4% never practiced the examination. Only 15.9% of residents reported being skilled in the SCE. However, the conduct of 4 SCEs (or slightly more than 1 per each year of residency) was associated with manifold increases in self-reported skill levels. Conclusions Information now collected from 7 medical schools and 4 residency programs underscores the need for more supervised opportunities to enable physicians in training to perform an SCE during routine patient examinations.