Clinical Skills

I am pleased to report that the United States Medical Licensing Examination has found me:

• capable of integrating a clinical encounter
• competent with communication and interpersonal skills and
• proficient with spoken English.

In sum, I passed the clinical skills portion of USMLE Step 2. Step 2 CS. The CS stands for Costly Sandwich. As in $1500. Or in my case, $500 each. For those outside of the medical education circle, this is the exam where senior medical students (or international medical graduates) fly to one of 5 American cities to take an 8 hour examination that consists of interviews with 12 standardized patient actors. The closest spot for me was in LA. The exam costs about $1200 not including lodging and airfare. There is a "free" lunch.