A quantitative analysis comparing pre-clinical volunteering hours with third-year medical students' preceptor...

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Student Performance
• Volunteerism Impact

Background:

• Pre-clerkship volunteering is linked to improved subjective qualities like clinical skills confidence, empathy, and social awareness.
• However, limited research has explored the impact of volunteerism on objective measures, such as third-year medical student evaluations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the correlation between volunteer hours logged in the Translating Osteopathic Understanding into Community Health (TOUCH) system and third-year preceptor evaluations.
• To determine if perceived benefits of volunteerism translate into measurable improvements in objective student assessments.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective cohort study analyzed 127 medical students from a class of 161.
• Volunteer hours were self-recorded in the TOUCH system; preceptor evaluations were collected and analyzed across various clinical competencies.
• Pearson and Spearman correlation analyses were employed to assess the relationship between volunteer hours and evaluation scores.

Main Results:

• The study included 127 students and 1,321 evaluations, with an average of 65.63 TOUCH hours.
• No statistically significant correlation (p>0.05) was found between the number of volunteer hours and the scores on third-year preceptor evaluations.
• This suggests that volunteerism, as measured by TOUCH hours, did not significantly impact objective performance evaluations in this cohort.

Conclusions:

• Despite prior research indicating positive subjective impacts of volunteering, this study found no significant link to objective evaluation scores.
• Potential factors influencing this discrepancy include preceptor subjectivity, variability in clinical engagement, and grade inflation.
• The findings raise important questions about aligning volunteer experiences and evaluation methods to effectively prepare osteopathic medical students for residency.