Direct observation and focused feedback for clinical skills training.

Direct observation of the medical trainee by an expert assessor and providing authentic feedback is considered an important tool for development of clinical and procedural skills. Mini-clinical evaluation exercise and Direct Observation of Procedural Skills are two important tools to observe the trainee during a clinical encounter or during a procedure, make an expert standardized (though subjective) observation, and use it to provide developmental feedback. Both can be easily integrated into routine work of clinical departments, and both provide a reliable assessment if 6-8 such encounters are used.