Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 20, 2026
Author Spotlight: Evaluating Clinicians' Adoption of Ultrasound-Guided Vascular Cannulation Through Simulation Training
Published on: August 9, 2024
Using the Readiness for Clerkship and Residency Surveys to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Four MD Programs: A
Linda N Peterson1, Shayna A Rusticus, Kevin W Eva
1L.N. Peterson is former senior evaluation advisor, Evaluation Studies Unit, Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and former assistant secretary, Committee on the Accreditation of Canadian Medical Schools, Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. S.A. Rusticus is instructor, Department of Psychology, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada, and former statistical analyst, Evaluation Studies Unit, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. K.W. Eva is professor and director, Education Research and Scholarship, Department of Medicine, and associate director and senior scientist, Centre for Health Education Scholarship, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada; ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8672-2500. D.A. Wilson is director, Evaluation Studies Unit, Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. R.J. Pittini is associate professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and director, Evaluations of the MD Program, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. M. Schreiber is professor, Department of Medicine, and 3M National Teaching Fellow. He is former director, Undergraduate Medical Education Curriculum, and interim accreditation review coordinator, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. S.E. Pinchin is educational specialist and manager, Division of Undergraduate Medical Educational Support and Development, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. S.L. Moffatt is associate professor, Department of Medicine, and director, Clerkship Curricular Courses, Queens University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada. J.M. Sargeant is professor, Division of Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. A.E. Warren is associate professor, Department of Pediatrics, and associate dean, Postgraduate Medical Education, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. P. Alexiadis-Brown is program evaluation specialist, Dalhousie Medicine New Brunswick Program, and instructor, School of Health Sciences, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Purpose:
The importance of confidence for learning and performance makes learners' perceptions of readiness for the next level of training valuable indicators of curricular success. The "Readiness for Clerkship" (RfC) and "Readiness for Residency" (RfR) surveys have been shown to provide reliable ratings of the relative effectiveness of various aspects of training. This study examines the generalizability of those results.
Method:
Surveys were administered at four medical schools approximately four months after the start of clerkship and eight months after the start of residency during 2013-2015. Collected data were anonymized. A total of 647 medical students and 483 residents participated.
Results:
Reliabilities of G = 0.8 could be obtained with only 6 to 12 medical students and 8 to 15 residents. Within MD programs, no meaningful differences in item ratings were observed across cohorts. Residents in each school consistently rated themselves higher than clerks on the majority of Medical Expert and Communicator competencies common to both surveys. Similar strengths and weaknesses were identified across programs, but differences were observed on five clerkship items and one residency item.
Conclusions:
Across four MD programs, the RfC and RfR surveys provided reliable ratings of the relative effectiveness of aspects of training with small numbers of respondents. The capacity of these surveys to efficiently identify perceived strengths and weaknesses held by cohorts of learners may, thereby, facilitate program improvement.
