Action of student-resident interaction during a surgical clerkship

This study is a qualitative assessment of the effect of clinical encounter documentation cards on medical student-surgical resident interaction during the core surgical clerkship, junior medical school year.

The implementation of a clinical encounter documentation card system occurred during academic year 2009-2010. The results were compared with historical control medical student cohorts from antecedent academic years. The perceptions of overall quality of the clerkship and effectiveness of residents as teachers were assessed using a psychometric Likert scale.

Ninety percent of the medical students and surgical residents "agreed" or "strongly agreed" that the educational value of clinical encounters was enhanced by the documentation card system.

Junior medical students receive a substantial and valuable portion of their formal surgical education from surgical residents. We argue that this documentation card system tangibly increased the educational value of clinical encounters and improved the cognitive, technical, and rhetorical skills of both medical students and surgical residents.

We submit that this clinical encounter documentation card system: improved each student's educational experience and each resident's teaching ability; provided valuable information about residents as teachers; facilitated more refined assessment of their performance in relationship to the core competencies; provided timely information permitting adjustments of clinical service assignments during each rotation; and "clinical context teaching moments" were perceived as a valuable element of the core surgical clerkship.