An Intervention to Improve the Evaluation of Clerkship Students

Abstract

Background: Effective feedback is an important part of formative evaluation of clerkship students, improving student performance by increasing awareness to weaknesses and strengths. Aim: The aim of this study was to obtain more helpful feedback. Setting: Internal Medicine third year clerkship rotation at Joan C Edwards School of Medicine, Huntington, WV. Participants: The Internal Medicine department has fifty-nine general and subspecialty faculty physicians. Program Description: We changed the structure of the existing feedback form by requesting written comments at the beginning and asking for specific strengths and areas for improvement, educated faculty, and gave them a milestones card. Three reviewers independently ranked written feedback according to a rubric. We compared the quantity of either helpful or unhelpful feedback obtained during the 2016 and 2017 academic years with that obtained in the first rotation of 2018-2019. Program Evaluation: With our intervention, helpful comments increased from 33.8% to 79.2%. A Kappa statistic revealed a lack of bias of the reviewers. Discussion: A small change in the evaluation form along with an educational intervention and milestones card improved the quantity of helpful feedback given to students in the Internal Medicine clerkship.

Keywords

• feedback
• evaluation
• clerkship
• medical students