Korean Med Educ Rev.  2017 Feb;19(1):47-55.

Structured Assessment to Evaluate a Family Medicine Clerkship Program

Affiliations
  • 1Family Medicine Clinic and Research Institute of Convergence of Biomedical Science and Technology, Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Yangsan, Korea. saylee@pnu.edu
  • 2Medical Research Institute, Pusan National University Hospital, Busan, Korea.
  • 3Department of Medical Education Unit, Pusan National University Medical School, Yansan, Korea.
  • 4Department of Family Medicine, Pusan National University Medical School, Yansan, Korea.
  • 5Department of Physiology, Pusan National University Medical School, Yansan, Korea.

Abstract

This study was conducted to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of a 3-week family medicine clerkship program based on the results of an online survey taken by the students (N=127) and a structured interview with a focus group (n=10), aimed to improve the quality of the clerkship program. The online survey contained questions pertaining to goals, schedule, contents, arrangement, atmosphere, environment, evaluation, and satisfaction regarding the clerkship. The focus group interview addressed the schedule and achievements of the program. Scores were reported on a 5-point Likert scale. Most students were highly satisfied with the overall quality of the clerkship. The structured interview results showed that 97.6% of the clerkship program was executed according to the schedule. The focus group reported a perfect score of 5 points on several measures including: accomplishment of the educational goals of the family medicine clerkship, providing many chances to obtain medical histories and perform physical examinations on real patients, experience with various symptoms and diseases, positive attitudes of faculty members when teaching, notification of the guidelines for evaluation beforehand, well-constructed and effective clerkship schedule, and reflection of student feedback. However, the focus group gave low scores on: support for health accidents of students, access to patient information, enough opportunities to practice clinical skills, appropriate rest facilities for students, and fairness of clerkship evaluation process. In conclusion, the structured evaluation performed after the 3-week clerkship program motivated students and helped them ensure an efficient clerkship. This structured evaluation also suggested basic data to make the professor who is subject of the assessment. This study shows that structured assessment is an effective method which can be used to improve the quality of clerkships.

Keyword

Family practice; Clinical clerkship; Self-evaluation programs; Focus groups; Surveys and questionnaires; Feedback

MeSH Terms

Appointments and Schedules
Atmosphere
Clinical Clerkship
Clinical Competence
Family Practice
Focus Groups
Humans
Methods
Physical Examination
Self-Evaluation Programs
Surveys and Questionnaires
Full Text Links
  • KMER
Actions
Cited
CITED
export Copy
Close
Share
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
Similar articles
Copyright © 2024 by Korean Association of Medical Journal Editors. All rights reserved.     E-mail: koreamed@kamje.or.kr