The article “Student evaluation practices in pediatric clerkships: a survey of the medical schools in the United States and Canada” written in Clinical Pediatrics in October 2004, vol. 43, no 8 by Ashir Kumar, Renuka Gera, Gaurang Shah, Sonia Godambe and David J. Kalen is the subject for the discussion in this paper. Rapidly changing curriculum and the ways how medical students are educated and evaluated make it difficult to evaluate the efficiency of the medical students. Moreover, it has become almost impossible to measure students’ evaluation practices in clerkship. The authors of the article have decided to conduct research with the purpose “to find out about the structure of the pediatric clerkship, students evaluation practices, grading (pass, fail, honors), and remediation processes used in pediatric clerkships in US and Canadian medical schools” (Kumar, Gera, Shah, Godambe and. Kalen 729).
The data was considered by means of surveys that were sent to all the members of the research. The focus of the interrogation was the information devoted to the general clerkship and to the educational process. The response rate was 69%. The research results were as follows, students were not really interested in this profession, therefore, the demand for it in medical schools was low. The duration of the courses did not have any impact. Depending on the medical school, the classes could last from 4 up to 7 weeks. The ambulatory experience was required in all the programs. According to the survey, 1.01 weeks were spent on nursing, 3.27 weeks were devoted to impatient, emergence pediatric took only 0.39 weeks, and ambulatory classes took 2.26 weeks in general. It is obvious that the measurement exists and the researchers managed to understand some peculiarities of the clerkship is to be conducted. Having conducted this research, the authors of the experiment concluded that the data studied for medical clerkship is present in many other courses. It may be important to consider this data and to reevaluate the main idea of the classes in this profession.
Trying to express a personal opinion about the research results, I suppose that the medical clerkship should be removed as an independent course and should be included in another profession. Therefore, getting the same classes students are sure to get two or more occupations depending on the course. Low demand for medical clerkship classes is explained by the low interest of people in this non-medical profession and the requirement for study medicine. I am inclined to think that students in the medical schools search for the professions where they will be able to show their practical abilities, however, many students do not mind to work as clerkship for some time to consider the nursing profession from another angle, to check the work of the medical establishment and to get some practice from communication with professionally trained doctors and nurses. Therefore, medical schools and the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics should reconsider the curriculum in some professions and add the qualification students get after completing those courses. Medical clerkship is not an interesting profession as it does not offer professional growth while personal and professional development is the most important issue in the life of each person, not only of a medical employee.
Works Cited
Kumar, Ashir, Gera, Renuka, Shah, Gaurang, Godambe, Sonia and David J. Kalen. “Student evaluation practices in pediatric clerkships: a survey of the medical schools in the United States and Canada.” Clinical Pediatrics 43.8 (2004): 729-735.