[December 16, 2022 – Parker, CO]
In November of 2020, the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners (NBOME) temporarily suspended the administration of the COMLEX-USA Level 2-PE exam; it was permanently suspended in February of 2021. In addition to the NBOME Board of Directors conducting months of research, they convened a task force to address how to assess the fundamental clinical skills for osteopathic medical practice of graduating students in place of the obsolete Level 2-PE exam.
The task force was charged with exploring ways to develop a valid and reliable assessment, administered locally at COMs throughout the United States, which can be used to assess students’ competency in fundamental osteopathic clinical skills based on a national standard. The program is known as the Core Clinical Capstone for DOs Program – or – C3DO. (You can learn more about this initiative here: https://www.nbome.org/c3do/)
The NBOME sent out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for COMs to apply to be a pilot site of the C3DO program. I am so happy to announce that out of 17 COMs who submitted their RFP, RVUCOM was chosen as 1 of the 4 to participate in this pilot this program!
What does this mean for RVUCOM? It means that we will be conducting a pilot of the next iteration of the COMLEX Level 2-PE on each of our campuses. This will replace the temporary OMS-IV attestation process used last year and will be structurally similar.
Graduating Seniors: The week of attestation will be April 17-21. As we learn more from NBOME in the coming weeks, we will let you know what the process will be, and how attestation will support your future licensing needs.
We are very excited to be a pilot site. It is important to be a part of the conversation, providing valuable input on how to make medical education assessment the very best, and most accessible for Osteopathic medical students. I would like to say a special Thank You to Dr. Pitcher, Dr. Branda, and Ms. Chasity Edwards for their hard work and dedication to this effort. I’d also like to acknowledge the high-quality attestation performed last year by our own PCM and OPP faculty, staff and standardized patients, Dr. Hudgins, and again, Ms. Chasity Edwards. Their hard work bridged the attestation gap between the old PE and this new COM/NBOME partnered approach.
