Evaluating a clerkship curriculum: description and results.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training Curriculum Evaluation

Background:

• Curricula require regular review to meet evolving learner needs.
• Ensuring surgical clerkship relevance is critical for general professional physician education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and apply a model for evaluating a surgery clerkship curriculum.
• To assess the appropriateness of learning objectives for general professional physician education.

Main Methods:

• A survey was distributed to generalist residency graduates.
• Respondents reported patient encounter frequencies, referral rates, and technical procedure proficiency.
• Importance of proficiency in 23 technical procedures was assessed.

Main Results:

• Most graduates deemed proficiency in 19 technical procedures essential.
• Specific patient problems necessitate clear instruction on surgical referral criteria.

Conclusions:

• The surgery clerkship curriculum was updated.
• New skills and topics were incorporated, and existing ones were better emphasized based on graduate feedback.