Variation in Faculty Evaluations of Clerkship Students Attributable to Surgical Service

Objective The purpose of this study was to determine whether students' performance evaluations by faculty were influenced by the clinical service on which the student was evaluated. Methods Third-year medical students spent 8 weeks rotating on 3 (or 2) surgical services. Typically, students rot...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of surgical education 2010-05, Vol.67 (3), p.179-183
Main Authors: Plymale, Margaret A., MSN, RN, French, Judith, PhD, Donnelly, Michael B., PhD, Iocono, Joseph, MD, Pulito, Andrew R., MD
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Clinical Clerkship - standards
Educational Measurement - methods
evaluation
faculty ratings
Faculty, Medical
General Surgery - education
grading decisions
Humans
Improvement
Kentucky
medical education
Practice-Based Learning
Students, Medical - statistics & numerical data
Surgery
surgery clerkship
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Summary:Objective The purpose of this study was to determine whether students' performance evaluations by faculty were influenced by the clinical service on which the student was evaluated. Methods Third-year medical students spent 8 weeks rotating on 3 (or 2) surgical services. Typically, students rotate on one 4-week general surgery service and two 2-week subspecialty services. Faculty members rated student performance on 5 characteristics and provided a numeric grade. Data were analyzed to determine whether any significant variations in evaluation patterns emerged. Results A total of 1033 evaluations were included in the analyses. Based on an analysis of variance, the numeric grade varied significantly by service (p < 0.001). The partial eta squared statistic was large (0.21). Ratings of students' performance on specific performance characteristics also varied significantly by service (p < 0.001). Conclusions The assessment of a surgical student's clinical performance is influenced by the specific services on which he/she has rotated and may be related to the length of the rotation. Research is needed to determine whether the differences among services should be considered as a source of error in grading or considered to reflect the particular challenge of the service.
ISSN:1931-7204
1878-7452
DOI:10.1016/j.jsurg.2010.03.003