Medical student’s views about assessment of methods used in clinical clerkship in medical school of Hormozgan medical university in 2003

Introduction: Clinical skill education is a principal part of medical education
which is not usually organized and systematized. Providing information is helpful
in future programming and decision-making. This survey was conducted on
medical students to study the evaluation methods used for clinical courses of
Hormozgan University of Medical Science (HUMS).
Methods: This cross-sectional study was based on the opinion poll of 102
medical students of HUMS in 2003. The survey consisted of 10-item
questionnaire designed to evaluate preliminary information, general, assessment
method, type of exams and the effect of other person’s viewpoints on clinical
skill evaluation which was distributed among students at the beginning of a
clinical course and collected at its end. The results are presented by Epi-info
2000 software in a descriptive format.
Results: Being punctual and answering oral questions was almost gradually
evaluated according to student’s opinion (49% and 39.2% , respectively). Most
students (81%) believe that scientific exam allocates less than 25% of evaluation
grades, and some (70%) think that other people’s opinion (excluding the faculty)
is completely ineffective in evaluation. Most of the students believed their
evaluation best represented their clinical reasoning skill, while other skills such as
communication with patient or physical examination and emergency procedures
were least reflected in their evaluation.
Conclusion: The greater role of subjective assessments including teacher’s opinion
on student evaluation and fewer objective methods applied for evaluation of clinical
skills has let to the suggestion that a curriculum revision and introduction of more
objective methods such as OSCE, logbooks or portfolios is necessary.