FEINBERG PAVILION – The New Curriculum has proven to be dynamic, especially when it comes to the evaluation process and portfolio system. After the start of Phase II, AWOME announced that in addition to residents and attendings evaluating students during their clerkships, students would have to seek out nurses for evaluations as well.
More recently, in response to student complaints that there have been too few evaluations to properly fill out this year’s portfolio review, AWOME has further expanded evaluations to various staff throughout NMH as of 2015.
Marisa Underwood, c/o 2016, found this out the hard way, as she unexpectedly received a below benchmark evaluation after buying lunch from ABP while on her Medicine clerkship.
“I must have missed that email,” Marisa pleaded to The Flipside. “The eval said that I wasn’t paying attention and didn’t go to the open register when it was available, instead I was standing around ‘in a daze.’ I lost big points for ‘Student as Communicator’ there. I must not have said ‘thank you,’ because my professionalism score was low as well.”
The class of 2016 has so far shown frustration with ‘Big Brother’ constantly looking over their shoulder. MS3 Sam Overwood has found his Phase II year to be difficult for that reason.
“It makes me really anxious! Having to impress my residents and attendings and the thought in the back of your head that you’re always being watched makes everything so much more difficult. With the addition of nursing evals now, I can’t go anywhere without feeling like I’m under a microscope!”
Evaluations are important in directing the areas of improvement for medical students, but excessive evaluation can actually inhibit the educational process in that the pressure to do well becomes overwhelming. In addition, the more that we’re observed, the more artificial the experience becomes. As in any study, the act of observation inherently changes the outcome, as well as the behavior of the group being studied (i.e. Hawthorne effect). Clerkships become more of a ‘game’ or ‘objective’ of impressing others, as opposed to being a genuine learning experience within the process of patient care.
Regardless, AWOME’s broadened evaluation initiative will continue. Per one AWOME spokesperson, students can expect evaluations from janitors, security guards, and candy stripers in the near future. Sources close to The Flipside believe AWOME is hoping to put GoPro cameras on every member of the class of 2017 when they start Phase II, which would give Feinberg students plenty of data to discuss for their summative portfolio reviews.