Preceptors are encouraged to provide students with regular feedback on their performance throughout the clerkship. As a means of facilitating this process, students are encouraged to regularly solicit feedback from their preceptors regarding their performance. Questions such as, How did I do today?", or "Is there anything specific that you've noticed that I could do better?" will help prompt supervising physicians to provide feedback to students about their performance.
The Department of Surgery obtains feedback from each group of medical students in several ways. First, on the final day of the clerkship, each student is given the opportunity to provide written feedback about the clerkship, organization, content, and teaching efforts of faculty and resident physicians. The information is used to improve the quality of the clerkship. Evaluation forms will be distributed before distribution of the National Board, and must be completed and returned before leaving the testing site (if not returned, the student's grade will be withheld). Second, the faculty encourages verbal exchange with each student about how their learning of surgery could be made more meaningful and/or enjoyable. In this manner, we achieve a continuous evaluation-an important ingredient for curriculum development and revision. Finally, we will keep a close eye on measurement, e.g., examinations, clinical evaluations, etc., and will attempt to continually review and revise materials.
