To explore the application of mini-clinical evaluation exercise (Mini-CEX) in training the diagnostic thinking ability for clinical interns.

83 interns who came to the First Peo-ple’s Hospital of Lianyungang for clinical practice in June 2015 were divided into the experimental group (45 interns) and the control group (38 interns) according to their schools. The two groups received the same clinical teaching according to internship program of five-year clinical medicine, while the experimental group had to take a weekly Mini-CEX training in clinical sections. The diagnostic thinking ability of the two groups was measured by the Diagnostic Thinking Inventory in Chinese version at the beginning and the end of the in-ternship respectively. SPSS 21.0 was applied to processing the data. Measurement data were ex-pressed as mean plus or minus standard deviation, and t test was used in the comparison between groups.

At the end of the internship, the total score of diagnostic thinking, the score of knowledge structure in memory and the score of flexibility in thinking of the experimental group were higher than scores at the beginning sta-tistically, and the experimental group had a statistically higher score than the control groups in knowledge structure in memory [(69.36±4.28) vs. (66.95±4.78), P=0.018].

Mini-CEX train-ing can en-hance the clinical diagnostic thinking ability of interns by improving their knowledge structure in memory.

Mini-clinical evaluation exercise; Clinical diagnostic thinking; Interns