School of Medicine and Health Sciences Poster Presentations
Gender differences in self - evaluation of medical student competency during mid - point of inpatient pediatrics clerkship
Poster Number
223
Document Type
Poster
Status
Graduate Student - Doctoral
Abstract Category
Education/Health Services
Keywords
medical education, student, gender, evaluation
Publication Date
Spring 2018
Abstract
Background : Sel f - assessments are increasingly utilized in medical education. Many studies , however, report that self - assessment do es not correlate with actual clinical competence . Medical sch ools should identify which factors influence students to over - or underestimate their performance because t hese factors impe de student ability to identify areas of learning . Despite the yearly increase in female matriculants to medical schools, female medical students tend to underestimate their academic perfor mance compared to male students. Objective : T his study uses retrospective data to determine gender differences in medical student self - assessment during the inpatient pediatrics clerkship. Methods : De - identified mid - clerkship evaluation forms were obtained from the Office of Medical Student Educat ion for academic years 2011 - 2016 . On these forms, third - year medical students ranked themselves on a linear scale from “unacceptable” to “outstanding” for seven competency domains in inpatient pediatrics : History & Physical, Academic Resources, Patient - Phy sician Relationship, Verbal Reports, Attitude and Professionalism, Synthesis of Information and Differential Diagnosis, and Treatment Plan and Follow Up . A faculty preceptor evaluated the student on the same scale . T o account for variation in competency as a student progresses through clinical training, only students who had pediatrics as their first clerkship in the academic year were included in the study . A t otal of 110 students’ evaluations ( 56 female, 54 male) were analyzed. Comparisons between stud ent versus faculty ranki ng were recorded as underestimated , same, or overestimated ranking . Statistical analysis with Fisher exact test was performed for each competency area. Results /Discussion : In six out of seven competency domains , female students were more likely to underestimate their performance compared to male students. The domain with the highest degree of female student underestimation ( 78.6 %) was “Treatment Plan and Follow Up” . Male students had a higher percentage of overe stimated or same - as - faculty ratings compared to females in most categories. However, these findings were only statistically significant (p < 0.05) for the “History & Physical” and “ Treatment Plan and Follow Up ” competency domain s . The results sugge st t hat gender may influence student self - assessments of performance during third - year clerkships. Medical schools should address this inf luence in order to improve learning during clinical training.
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Gender differences in self - evaluation of medical student competency during mid - point of inpatient pediatrics clerkship
Background : Sel f - assessments are increasingly utilized in medical education. Many studies , however, report that self - assessment do es not correlate with actual clinical competence . Medical sch ools should identify which factors influence students to over - or underestimate their performance because t hese factors impe de student ability to identify areas of learning . Despite the yearly increase in female matriculants to medical schools, female medical students tend to underestimate their academic perfor mance compared to male students. Objective : T his study uses retrospective data to determine gender differences in medical student self - assessment during the inpatient pediatrics clerkship. Methods : De - identified mid - clerkship evaluation forms were obtained from the Office of Medical Student Educat ion for academic years 2011 - 2016 . On these forms, third - year medical students ranked themselves on a linear scale from “unacceptable” to “outstanding” for seven competency domains in inpatient pediatrics : History & Physical, Academic Resources, Patient - Phy sician Relationship, Verbal Reports, Attitude and Professionalism, Synthesis of Information and Differential Diagnosis, and Treatment Plan and Follow Up . A faculty preceptor evaluated the student on the same scale . T o account for variation in competency as a student progresses through clinical training, only students who had pediatrics as their first clerkship in the academic year were included in the study . A t otal of 110 students’ evaluations ( 56 female, 54 male) were analyzed. Comparisons between stud ent versus faculty ranki ng were recorded as underestimated , same, or overestimated ranking . Statistical analysis with Fisher exact test was performed for each competency area. Results /Discussion : In six out of seven competency domains , female students were more likely to underestimate their performance compared to male students. The domain with the highest degree of female student underestimation ( 78.6 %) was “Treatment Plan and Follow Up” . Male students had a higher percentage of overe stimated or same - as - faculty ratings compared to females in most categories. However, these findings were only statistically significant (p < 0.05) for the “History & Physical” and “ Treatment Plan and Follow Up ” competency domain s . The results sugge st t hat gender may influence student self - assessments of performance during third - year clerkships. Medical schools should address this inf luence in order to improve learning during clinical training.