Criteria for evaluating performance of third-year medical students.

Background: Evaluating medical student performance in clinical settings is an aspect of teaching that educators sometimes find difficult. This study was conducted to determine evaluation criteria for clinical performance that were considered important by physician faculty. These criteria were subsequently used in the student evaluation process for a decentralized clerkship in family medicine.

Methods: In Phase I, physician faculty were surveyed to identify preferred criteria for evaluating student performance through an open-ended format. In Phase II, the identified items were refined. In Phase III, 45 items were presented to the faculty for rating importance on a visual analogue scale.

Results: Twenty-nine of 31 physicians responded. Factor analysis identified three factors that accounted for 76.6% of the variance: application of knowledge, relationship with patients, and therapeutics in family medicine.

Conclusions: Results of the study suggest that physician faculty have internalized expectations of clinical competence in the discipline of family medicine that address the basic dimensions of cognitive ability, problem-solving skills, and interpersonal relationships.