Score in the national EsSalud exam and its associated factors in Peruvian medical students: A perspective of the university reform

Abstract

Objective: To describe the academic and institutional characteristics of students who took the National Medical Internship Exam (ENIM) of the Social Security Health System (EsSalud, abbreviature in Spanish) and explore their association with the score obtained.

Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study of a secondary database of medical students who took the ENIM of EsSalud in Peru on December 27, 2022. We evaluated the factors associated with the ENIM score using linear regression.

Results: We evaluated 1228 medical students who took the ENIM. The median ENIM score was 12.2 (range 10.2 to 13.8), 35.9% of students passed the exam, and only 26.5% came from a University with a licensed medicine program. In the adjusted model, the ENIM score was higher in students who belonged to a university with a licensed medicine program (β 0.5; 95% CI: 0.2 to 0.8) and those with a university-weighted average greater than or equal to 13. And the score was lower in students from the partnership (β -1.2; -1.6 to -0.8) or associative (β -2.0; -2.4 to -1.6) universities compared to students from national universities.

Conclusion: Medical students from national universities, universities with licensed medicine programs, and a university weighted average of 13 or greater had a better performance in EsSalud's national medical internship exam.