Surgical Education
Assessment of a surgery clerkship’s performance evaluation system

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Abstract

Background: This study was designed to examine the validity of a surgery clerkship’s performance evaluation system. The study also assessed faculty members’ confidence in how clerks are evaluated and promotion decisions made.

Methods: Student files from five classes (n = 339) were analyzed. A 25-item published survey designed to study faculty perceptions of a student evaluation system was distributed. Chi-square tests of independence and descriptive statistics were used.

Results: Faculty survey results showed faculty perceptions of strengths and weaknesses in the evaluation system. Significant relationships were found with prior performance indicators and clerkship performance yielding evidence of concurrent and predictive validity.

Conclusions: Findings provide guidance for enhancing how clerks are evaluated as well as specific profiles of students who may need special attention or additional challenges during the surgery clerkship. This study provides a model for other clerkships to assess their student evaluations systems.

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.

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    Developing and maintaining a sound undergraduate clerkship curriculum

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