title: Correlating surgical clerkship evaluations with performance on the National Board of Medical Examiners examination.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Evaluation of medical students during the surgical clerkship is controversial. Performance is often based on subjective scoring, whereas objective knowledge is based on written examinations. Whether these measures correspond or are relevant to assess student performance is unknown. We hypothesized that student evaluations correlate with performance on the National Board Of Medical Examiners (NBME) examination.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected from the 2011-2012 academic year. Medical students underwent a ward evaluation using a seven-point Likert scale assessing six educational competencies. Students also undertook the NBME examination, where performance was recorded as a percentile score adjusted to national standards.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 129 medical students were studied. Scores on the NBME ranged from the 52nd to the 96th percentile with an average in the 75th percentile (±9). Clerkship scores ranged from 3.2-7.0 with a mean of 5.7 (±0.8). There was a strong positive association between higher NBME scores and higher clerkship evaluations shown by a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.47 (P<0.001). Students clustered with below average ward evaluations (3.0-4.0) were in the 69.5th percentile of NBME scores, whereas students clustered with above average ward evaluations (6.0-7.0) were in the 79.2th percentile (P<0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A strong positive relationship exists between subjective ward evaluations and NBME performance. These data may afford some confidence to surgical faculty and surgical resident ability to accurately evaluate medical students during clinical clerkships. Understanding factors in student performance may help in improving the surgical clerkship experience.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, UC San Diego Medical Center, San Diego, California. Electronic address: chreid@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Chris M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Reid
authors.affiliation: Division of Trauma, Department of Surgery, Acute Care Surgery and Surgical Critical Care, LA County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, San Diego, California.
authors.forename: Dennis Y
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: UC San Diego School of Medicine, San Diego, California.
authors.forename: Jess
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mandel
authors.affiliation: Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care and Burns, Department of Surgery, UC San Diego Medical Center, Torrance, California.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care and Burns, Department of Surgery, UC San Diego Medical Center, Torrance, California.
authors.forename: Vishal
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Bansal
mesh_terms: D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D004521:Educational Measurement; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D013337:Students, Medical
keywords: Medical student evaluation; Medical student performance; NBME; Subjective evaluations; Surgery clerkship; Third year; Ward evaluation