The European Examination — its present status and potential development

Abstract

The diversity among the over 30 European countries sending trainees to the EANS training courses is immense. This is based on both cultural factors and differences in priorities of teaching in the different countries. The explosion of medical knowledge poses an additional challenge to all those responsible in setting priorities for what is thought to be the core knowledge in a given training programme. With the concept of developing European standards in neurosurgical training it was evident that an evaluation of both trainers and trainees was necessary. In the US, already in 1940 the first American Board of Neurological Surgeons (ABNS) examination took place. In the UK, the first Intercollegiate Specialty Board Examination was held in 1991, consisting of a multiple-choice questionnaire (MCQ), a clinical examination and 3 vivas [13]. The objective of such examinations is to assure a certain level of theoretical and practical knowledge and to establish safety. While the majority of chairmen believe that such a set of exams is the best available method for probing clinical judgment and knowledge regarding the management of patients, others express a more critical view as for instance stated by John Picard: “Certainly my personal impression, unsub-stantiated by any official statistics, is that the level of excellence in the examination does not correlate with subsequent progress, academic innovation, or medical legal complications [13].”