Surgery Clerkship Grading and Evaluation PolicyA composite score is used to determine a pass or fail in the surgery clerkship. The composite score is composed of the following elements: a midterm examination, a final practical OSCE skills examination, a final NBME Shelf on the Surgery Examination, a participation grade, and faculty and resident appraisal of clinical performance. Please note that 60% of your grade comes from objective examinations and 40% from subjective evaluations of your comportment. Almost 50% of the grade comes from the midterm, the NBME Shelf on Surgery and practical OSCE Skills examinations. Midway through the clerkship a mandatory feedback meeting will be held with the Clerkship Director or the Associate Clerkship Director.
Assessments
Midterm examination 15%
Professionalism and Participation 10%
NBME Shelf test 20%
Practical OSCE Skills Examination 25%
Performance Appraisals (Faculty Evaluations) 30% Midterm examination: The midterm examination will be a pencil and paper test of multiple-choice questions reflecting all of the surgical disciplines. In addition, there will be projected images to test your diagnostic and therapeutic management of surgical problems. This test is directly linked to the objective that are posted on eMERG. The midterm evaluation is meant help you gauge your study in all of the surgical disciplines throughout the rotation. It is understood that not all students will have had all experiences at the time of the examination. The test is strictly linked to the objectives posted in the electronic syllabus on Blackboard. If you are working through the objectives as you study, the examination will reflect what you have achieved, and what is left to accomplish before the final examination. Participation and Professionalism: The set up of the surgery clerkship requires active participation from the students. You are professional students and your professionalism in that role will be judged. Prompt attendance in office hours and clinical duties, timely participation in case logs and large group session evaluations and participation in small group activities will be remarked on and points awarded. The division of Professionalism and Participation is worth 10% of your overall final score for the Surgery Clerkship. Each student is given the maximum 10% at the start of the clerkship. However, the maximum percentage will be decreased for each occurrence of which any of the following components of the Professionalism and Participation division may occur: - Absence/Tardiness
- Poor response to critique
- Inappropriate Dress
- Works poorly with others
- Lack of initiative
- Poor communications/Inappropriate statements/language
- Failure to complete forms —i.e., weekly patient encounter log forms, large group lecture session evaluation forms (Although these are anonymous, every student is responsible to hand in the form after each lecture session. Failure to complete the form for each lecture not only effects the score of yourself, but also that of your colleagues), etc.
NBME Shelf Test: This test is from the National Board of Medical Examiners and reflects the USMLE Step II examination. It will be given in the final week of the clerkship. It is an objective test of knowledge with long history of validity and reliability of its question bank. In addition to evaluating your surgical knowledge, you will gain experience with the style of examination that you will take early in your fourth year. Initially this will be a paper and pencil examination. We anticipate that it will eventually be computerized. Practical OSCE Skills Examination: This test is meant to be an objective evaluation of your ability to integrate the skills, attitudes and clinical information presented during the clinical clerkship. This practical examination, including standardized patients and skills stations, allows the skills objectives to be tested in the appropriate setting. Faculty/Resident Evaluations: At the end of each four-week block (Ambulatory, General Surgery, and Selective), the faculty and residents will submit an evaluations of your performance. They are asked to grade on a scale of 1 to 9. Please remove: with 4 being an acceptable (good) performance. They are asked to grade on a scale of 1 to 9, with 4 being an acceptable (good) performance. They will be evaluating the following areas: Patient Encounter Skills, Case Presentation, Knowledge and Professionalism. They are also asked to remark on areas of strengths and weaknesses and overall performance. | 
