Journal of Educational Evaluation for Health Professions

Research articles

Voluntary assignments during the pediatric clerkship to enhance the clinical experiences of medical students in the United States: Conrad Krawiec, Abigail Kate Myers; J Educ Eval Health Prof. 2020;17:17. Published online May 27, 2020; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3352/jeehp.2020.17.17

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Purpose
Pediatric clerkships that utilize off-campus clinical sites ensure clinical comparability by requiring completion of patient-focused tasks. Some tasks may not be attainable (especially off-campus); thus, they are not assigned. The objective of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of providing a voluntary assignment list to third-year medical students in their pediatric clerkship.
Methods
This is a retrospective single-center cross-sectional analysis of voluntary assignment completion during the 2019–2020 academic year. Third-year medical students were provided a voluntary assignment list (observe a procedure, use an interpreter phone to obtain a pediatric history, ask a preceptor to critique a clinical note, and follow-up on a patient after the rotation ends). Descriptive statistics were used to assess the timing and distribution of voluntary assignment completion.
Results
In total, 132 subjects (77 on the main campus, 55 off-campus) were included. Eighteen (13.6%) main-campus and 16 (12.1%) off-campus students completed at least 1 voluntary assignment. The following voluntary assignments were completed: observe a procedure (15, 11.4%), use an interpreter phone (26, 19.7%), ask a preceptor to critique a clinical note (12, 9.1%), and follow-up on a patient after the rotation ends (7, 5.3%). Off-campus students completed the assignments more often (29.1%) than on-campus students (23.4%)
Conclusion
Our clerkship values specific patient-focused tasks that may enhance student development, but are not attainable at all clinical sites. When provided a voluntary assignment list, 34 out of 132 students (25.8%) completed them. Clerkships that utilize off-campus sites should consider this approach to optimize the pediatric educational experience.

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Adherence to Self - Care Practice Among Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients Using the Theory of Planned Behavior and Health Belief Model at Comprehensive Specialized Hospitals of Amhara Region, Ethiopia: Mixed Method
Wudneh Simegn, Solomon Ahmed Mohammed, Getachew Moges
Patient Preference and Adherence.2023; Volume 17: 3367. CrossRef

Effect of student-directed solicitation of evaluation forms on the timeliness of completion by preceptors in the United States: Conrad Krawiec, Vonn Walter, Abigail Kate Myers; J Educ Eval Health Prof. 2019;16:32. Published online October 16, 2019; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3352/jeehp.2019.16.32

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Abstract PDF Supplementary Material: Purpose
Summative evaluation forms assessing a student’s clinical performance are often completed by a faculty preceptor at the end of a clinical training experience. At our institution, despite the use of an electronic system, timeliness of completion has been suboptimal, potentially limiting our ability to monitor students’ progress. The aim of the present study was to determine whether a student-directed approach to summative evaluation form collection at the end of a pediatrics clerkship would enhance timeliness of completion for third-year medical students.
Methods
This was a pre- and post-intervention educational quality improvement project focused on 156 (82 pre-intervention, 74 post-intervention) third-year medical students at Penn State College of Medicine completing their 4-week pediatric clerkship. Utilizing REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) informatics support, student-directed evaluation form solicitation was encouraged. The Wilcoxon rank-sum test was applied to compare the pre-intervention (May 1, 2017 to March 2, 2018) and post-intervention (April 2, 2018 to December 21, 2018) percentages of forms completed before the rotation midpoint.
Results
In total, 740 evaluation forms were submitted during the pre-intervention phase and 517 during the post-intervention phase. The percentage of forms completed before the rotation midpoint increased after implementing student-directed solicitation (9.6% vs. 39.7%, P<0.05).
Conclusion
Our clerkship relies on subjective summative evaluations to track students’ progress, deploy improvement strategies, and determine criteria for advancement; however, our preceptors struggled with timely submission. Allowing students to direct the solicitation of evaluation forms enhanced the timeliness of completion and should be considered in clerkships facing similar challenges.

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