Using qualitative data from a program director's evaluation form as an outcome measurement for medical school.
BACKGROUND
Medical education programs need outcome measurements to promote curriculum improvement and to help meet accreditation standards.


OBJECTIVE
Determine the added value of qualitative comments written by program directors (PDs) in response to a survey concerning first postgraduate year (PGY-1) graduates. We hypothesized that these comments would serve as an additional outcome measurement for our graduates, adding information not readily captured in numeric data.


METHODS
PD evaluation form surveys from 1993-2002. All qualitative comments offered in response to free text questions were coded and compared with numeric ratings.


RESULTS
A total of 1,247 surveys were included (80% response rate). Comments about specific graduates were coded as positive, negative, or neutral and were categorized into themes. Inter-rater reliability was high (kappa= 0.82). Compared with 4% of graduates who received one or more numeric ratings of less than satisfactory, 7% had one or more qualitative phrases classified as negative.


CONCLUSIONS
Qualitative comments can serve as a useful outcome measurement.
Durning
Steven J
SJ
Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, 4301 Jones Bridge Road, Bethesda, MD 20814-4712, USA.
Hanson
Janice
J
Gilliland
William
W
McManigle
John M
JM
Waechter
Donna
D
Pangaro
Louis N
LN
D004501:Education, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008887:Military Medicine / Q000193:education*; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000592:standards*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States