The quality of surgical clerkships

Many of the contours of a surgical clerkship can be designed, implemented, and evaluated with varying degrees of objectivity. The recently established Association for Surgical Education and its expanding membership have performed in an excellent fashion in addressing the objectives, content, process, and evaluation of surgical clerkships. There are several factors that influence the quality of a clerkship that are not readily subjected to measurement but that have a significant impact on the environment and conduct of clerkships. Criticism, mainly from the academic community, has been directed recently to distortions of the learning process and the continuing use of traditional teaching methods that do not serve medical educational programs and students optimally. More attention should be paid to the principle that a surgical clerkship should be designed to provide an elemental comprehension of the major surgical diseases irrespective of how the students will select multiple specialties for their careers. The quality of a clinical teaching program is influenced in a realistic way by the quality of care provided to the patients. The image of the staff, especially the resident staff, plays an important role in affecting students' incentives, the development of self-discipline, their attitudes toward patients and families, and the ultimate selection of careers. As much responsibility as possible for the diagnosis of disease and the care of patients should be given to students under close supervision and always with the best interests of the patients in mind. The environment of medical schools and teaching hospitals is changing rapidly. The corporate practice of medicine will have an impact on the quality of surgical clerkships, we hope not adversely.