The progress of students who encounter repeated difficulties in a problem‐based medical school

Abstract

Evaluation summaries for students with two or more grades of “less‐than‐satisfactory “ were identified from the last six graduating classes of a problem‐based medical school and reviewed to study the progress of those students; these were compared with those of their peer cohort who achieved an all‐satisfactory performance record. The evaluations of the problematic group revealed patterns very different from those of the cohort group in terms of the number of concerns raised in each evaluation throughout the program and of the courses and educational dimensions in which their difficulties had occurred. These students had problems with the same dimensions repeatedly, especially problem solving and knowledge. This study supports the need for early identification and remediation of students who encounter multiple difficulties in a single unit or repeated problems with the same dimension over several units. It also provides support for a system that encourages the sharing of previous evaluation information with subsequent faculty.