Quantifying clinical activity in a multi-site clerkship in obstetrics and gynecology

Student evaluations of the obstetrics and gynecology clerkship at the University of Minnesota suggested dissatisfaction because of disparity in students' clinical participation among training sites. We therefore designed a method to evaluate student experience. We found that 19.6% of students completed all the clinical activities we designated as essential to an adequate clerkship experience. The average student on the clerkship completed 85.3% of the expected clinical activities. Clerkship sites varied widely (71.5-98.3%) as to the proportion of clinical activities completed by the students. Feedback from the students incorrectly implied that low clinical experience occurred in institutions served by private practitioners rather than full-time faculty. In reality, there was no difference in clinical activities accomplished with private physicians (84.2%) or with full-time faculty (86.6%). From later student evaluations, we concluded that measurement of clinical activities completed can serve as a stimulus to increase student participation.