[Student evaluation of anesthesiological teaching: steering instrument of a continuous improvement process]

The amendment to the higher education act ("Hochschulrahmengesetz") of 1998 postulates an evaluation of teaching for quality assurance. Hence, in the winter semester of 2004 the University Medical Center of Bonn introduced a semester questionnaire for students to evaluate the quality of teaching (EVALON). This evaluation is designed to be an objective benchmarking tool which is used for the distribution of university funds. It is also a steering instrument for direct improvement of teaching in clinical subjects. The aim of this study was to investigate, whether EVALON improved the quality of teaching between 2006 and 2010 and whether the department of anesthesiology improved its ranking in comparison with the other participating institutes.

Data from the EVALON questionnaire from the years 2006-2010 were analyzed for improvements in the quality of teaching in anesthesiology. This study focused on three essential contents of the EVALON questionnaire (structural content and organizational procedure of lectures and seminars, course presentation), which were used for the generation of a ranking list of all participating medical institutes and departments. On the basis of these results, 12.5% of the funding was assigned for educational purposes.

There was an average return rate of the questionnaires of 74.5%. A significant increase in the overall assessment score of 43.4% could be observed from 5.3 in the summer semester of 2006 to 7.6 in the winter semester of 2009/10. The evaluation score for the department of anesthesiology concerning structural content of seminars and lectures increased by 79% from 4.8 in 2006 to 8.6 in 2010. The quality of organizational procedure was evaluated with a score of 4.9 in 2006 and improved by 74% to 8.5 in 2010. The course presentation skills of the teachers as evaluated by EVALON improved by 61% from a score of 5.2 in 2006 to 8.4 in 2010. In comparison with all other participating medical institutes the department of anesthesiology improved its ranking from position 36 in the winter semester 2006 to position 2 in the summer semester 2010.

The reorganization of teaching anesthesiology, directly controlled by the results of EVALON improved the ranking of the department of anesthesiology. There was also a concomitant increase of the performance-oriented allocation of funds assigned to the department of anesthesiology based on the EVALON results.