Competency-based student self-assessment on a surgery rotation

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Self-Assessment in Learning
• Gender Studies in Medicine

Background:

• Self-assessment is crucial for adult learning but understudied in medical students.
• Limited data exist on medical students' self-assessment abilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate medical students' self-assessment skills during a third-year surgery clerkship.
• To compare student self-assessments with faculty evaluations.

Main Methods:

• Sixty-eight third-year medical students (34 male, 34 female) completed an 11-item competency-based self-assessment.
• Student self-assessments were compared with identical faculty assessments at the clerkship midpoint.

Main Results:

• Female students significantly underestimated their performance compared to faculty evaluations (P < 0.05).
• Male students tended to overestimate performance, but not statistically significantly.
• Female students statistically outperformed male students on the surgery clerkship (P < 0.05).

Conclusions:

• Female students exhibit lower self-assessment accuracy than male students during surgery clerkships.
• Gender socialization may contribute to women underreporting capabilities.
• Recognizing gender differences in self-assessment is vital for effective faculty feedback.