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Original Research

Medical students’ logbook case loads do not predict final exam scores in surgery clerkship

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Pages 259-265 | Published online: 18 Apr 2018
 

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate the reliability of medical student logbook data in assessing student performance and predicting outcomes in an objective standardized clinical exam and a multiplechoice exam during surgery rotation. In addition, we examined the relationship between exam performance and the number of clinical tutors per student.

Materials and methods

A retrospective review of the logbooks of first and third clinical year medical students at the Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, was undertaken during their surgery rotation during the academic year 2012–2013.

Results

Logbooks of 184 students were reviewed and analyzed. There were 92 and 93 students in the first and third clinical years, respectively. We did not identify any correlation between the number of clinical encounters and clinical exam or multiple-choice exam scores; however, there was an inverse relationship between the number of clinical tutors encountered during a rotation and clinical exam scores.

Conclusion

Overall, there was no correlation between the volume of self-reported clinical encounters and exam scores. Furthermore, an inverse correlation between the number of clinical tutors encountered and clinical exam scores was detected. These findings indicate a need for reevaluation of the way logbook data are entered and used as an assessment tool.

Author contributions

All authors contributed toward data analysis, drafting and revising the paper and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.