Medical students’ clinical performance in general practice – Triangulating assessments from patients, teachers and students

Abstract

Patients scored students' performance high compared with students' self-assessments. Teachers' scores were in accordance with patients' scores. Teachers' written evaluations of students were often general. There is a potential for improving teachers' feedback in terms of more specific and concrete comments.

Triangulation of written assessments from patients, teachers and students: Useful for students and teachers?

“…For the students, extra stress was added by making StudentPEP mandatory. The benefits measured consisted mainly of the written feedback and selfassessments, which ranged from remarkably good to quite disappointing (Braend et al 2010). A third of the students thought that StudentPEP helped them to get better feedback in the clerkship, and they found the project worthwhile.…”

“…Previously, we have compared students' scores on their own consultations with patients' and teachers' scores, and found significant differences. Patients and teachers gave approximately one point higher scores on a 5-point scale (Braend et al 2010). Forty-four per cent of the students believed that the patients gave their honest opinion on the questionnaires, and this allowed some students to let the patient feedback increase their self-confidence.…”

“…We measured satisfaction with degrees of agreement from students and teachers, but the educational impact contains more than satisfaction. We also considered the quality of the feedback provided (Braend et al 2010). Other outcomes are more elusive, as the goals with the StudentPEP project are broad and long-term.…”

“…The students assessed their own consultations using the same open-ended questions. A complete description of the instrument and the data collected in the StudentPEP questionnaires in 2007 has been presented earlier (Braend et al 2010). …”

“…Educational literature emphasizes the importance of individualized feedback which integrates the student's self-evaluation (Rushton 2005). The StudentPEP project ( Figure 1) provided triangulation of written feedback from patients and teachers combined with students' selfassessment (Braend et al 2010). …”