An Integrated Approach for Evaluating Students' Achievement of Clinical Objectives

During the clinical phase of undergraduate medical education (UME) students are often geographically dispersed and assigned to preceptors throughout the community. Monitoring, documenting, and evaluating their clinical experiences and achievement of clinical objectives in this venue becomes a challenge, especially for large UME programs. The purpose of this manuscript is to discuss a method for developing and implementing a school-wide evaluation system for the clinical phase of UME. This type of evaluation system links students' clinical experiential data with the objectives of a clerkship, using technological advances, such as the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), Internet, and intranet. Clerkship directors are provided realtime reports on student's progress toward achieving clerkship objectives and are able to monitor the clinical activities of the clerkship. Students on the other hand, will be empowered to take more control of their educational experiences by monitoring their own progress.