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All work and no play: Addressing medical students' concerns about duty hours on the surgical clerkship
Trevor J Barnum1, Amy L Halverson2, Irene Helenowski1
1Department of Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, 251 E. Huron St., Suite 3-150, Chicago, IL, USA.
Background:
Given the option of preferencing rotations for a 3rd year core surgery clerkship, we observed students often requested services perceived as less time-intensive. We compare self-reported duty hours with academic outcomes.
Methods:
We examined duty hours from 165 third-year medical students on a surgery clerkship at a single institution for academic year 2016-2017. Partial correlations and logistic regression modeling were used to assess the number of hours medical students worked on academic outcomes.
Results:
Medical student duty hours did not significantly correlate with the NBME Surgery Subject examination score (r = 0.08; p = 0.34), CPE score (r = 0.14; p = 0.09) or a clerkship grade of Honors (OR 0.993; CI 0.925-1.065). Prior completion of an internal medicine clerkship was correlated with a higher NBME Surgery Subject examination score (r = 0.27; p < 0.001).
Conclusion:
This analysis demonstrates duty hours on a surgical clerkship do not correlate with academic performance. These data can be used to counsel students on career planning and choosing surgical rotations based on interest and not perceived workload.