A process for identifying marginal performers among students in a clerkship

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Student Performance Evaluation

Background:

• Identifying students who are struggling in medical clerkships is crucial for timely intervention.
• Traditional evaluation methods may not consistently identify all marginal performers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the effectiveness of a revised review process for identifying marginal performers in a medicine clerkship.

Main Methods:

• The Medicine Clerkship Committee reviewed students rated below expectations in any of nine clinical performance areas.
• Chi-square analysis compared marginal performer identification rates before and after the review process implementation.
• Preclerkship standardized examination scores were used for comparative analysis.

Main Results:

• The review process identified 37% of reviewed students as marginal performers, a significant increase from 0.2% previously.
• No significant difference was found in preclerkship standardized examination performance between groups.
• The revised process identified 1.1% of students as marginal performers compared to 0.2% previously (p < .05).

Conclusions:

• The implemented review process significantly enhanced the identification of marginal performers in the medicine clerkship.
• The improvement in identification occurred without altering existing faculty and housestaff evaluation methods.