Surgical EducationAssessment of a surgery clerkship’s performance evaluation system
Section snippets
Background
Students from a midwestern state medical school progress through their first 2 years of medical school in either the standard or problem-based learning (PBL) tracks. The standard curriculum is a traditional medical school curriculum organized by basic science topics or units each worth a specific number of credit hours. Students must pass a series of examinations throughout the first and second years that indicate whether or not they have passed a sufficient number of unit hours. At the end of
Methods and materials
Three hundred thirty-nine medical students enrolled in a midwestern medical school served as the sample. The students (n = 339), representing five successive classes, had completed a required 10-week surgery clerkship. Some analyses exclude 3 students who had damaged microfiche files and were difficult to read. The majority of the students (n = 292; 86%) were enrolled in the standard curriculum track while 47 (14%) progressed through the first 2 years on the PBL track. Seventeen percent (n =
Results
Thirty-one faculty members completed the survey on faculty perceptions of student evaluation methods and outcomes, yielding an 89% response rate (n = 31). One responded by saying he felt too new to the faculty to complete the survey. Items rated highest by faculty included: “student skills at performing basic clinical procedures are evaluated carefully during the clerkship in this department” (M = 4.0); “clinical ratings that students receive are fair” (M = 3.9); “students whose performance is
Comments
Faculty perceptions of the student evaluation system in the surgery clerkship were largely positive. Faculty members had, however, some concerns about the candidness of narratives written by faculty about students who had exhibited poor performance. This is not a new problem and has already been documented in the literature.4 Concerns about negative evaluations being “watered down” and the hesitancy on the part of faculty to document poor student performance require attention to meet due
Conclusions
Performance evaluation systems tend to be developed and rarely reviewed. This research provides a model for validating grade-related decisions in clerkships, and identifying problems associated with faculty perceptions and understanding of the content and process of evaluating student performance. Continued collection of these data will enhance the generalizability of results, and provide information needed for retrospective reviews of the evaluation system at regular intervals.
References (5)
- et al.
Deciding how to evaluate performance
- et al.
Developing and maintaining a sound undergraduate clerkship curriculum
Acad Med
(1990)
Cited by (4)
Perceptions of evaluation in longitudinal versus traditional clerkships
2011, Medical EducationHow do internal medicine residency programs evaluate their resident float experiences?
2006, Southern Medical JournalWhat do faculty observe of medical students' clinical performance?
2006, Teaching and Learning in MedicineStudent evaluation of clerkship experience at dermatology department through questionnaire
2002, Korean Journal of Dermatology