3rd Year ClerkshipAssessment of Performance

During each of the five week blocks of the Clerkship, evaluation of students is gathered from the Surgical Resident Staff and your Preceptor. The Site Director is responsible for making sure that input is solicited in a structured written format, with space left for free text comments. Elements include:

• Patient care: Data gathering, data synthesis, oral and written reporting.
• Knowledge: fund of knowledge, effectiveness in expanding it; clinical reasoning, motivation; habits of life long learning.
• Communication skills: ability to establish effective therapeutic relationships, insight into barriers to communication, communicating with families, and other members of the health care team.
• Professionalism: altruism, motivation, humility, honesty, diligence, dependability; ability to reflect productively on events and relationships. Advancement in levels of responsibility: observer, reporter, interpreter, manager.
• Practice-based learning: ability to learn, accept feedback, habits that enhance growth and develop potential.
• Systems-based practice: effective team work, ability to communicate about errors, system problems, near misses.

This feedback is compiled, each preceptor writes a summary evaluation that comments on the student's performance and potential in each domain, as well as specifically on the observed history and physical examination and the student's write-ups.

Students take the shelf exam and the oral exam at the end of the 5-week clerkship. The preceptors determine the final grade.

Approximate weighting of grade at each site is the same.

Setting Evaluator % of grade

Definitions and approximate grade distribution (based on prior experience, not on quotas)

NOTE: Prior to 2006 the verbal descriptives below were used, but the only transcript grades were Honors, Pass, and Fail. Thus, there were effectively only two grades, honors or pass. Excellent, Very good, and Satisfactory were lumped together as Pass.

• Honors 20-30 % the student is outstanding in all competencies in all settings.
• Excellent 30-40 % the strong student who has a good fund of knowledge and excellent skills and who is progressing rapidly, or the student who is outstanding in some, but not all competencies.
• Very Good 20-30 % the student who exhibits strengths in some of the competencies, but who also has some areas that require attention and work.
• Satisfactory <1% the student who is performing marginally in one or more competency, and who needs remedial help.
• Incomplete <1% the student who is performing unsatisfactorily in one or more competency, and who must demonstrate competence in a sub-internship before passing.
• Fail <1% the student who has not demonstrated adequate competence or progress; or who has exhibited unprofessional conduct.

HOWEVER, Effective the academic year 2006-2007, the grading will switch to:

• Honors
• High Pass
• Pass
• Low Pass
• Fail

It is anticipated that the distribution will be similar to the prior ratios, only now the grades on your transcript will have essentially 3 categories, not 2 as before.