Skip to main content

Table 2 Comparison of clerkship evaluations between voluntary (class of 2016) and compulsory (class of 2017) approaches

From: Voluntary vs. compulsory student evaluation of clerkships: effect on validity and potential bias

Characteristics

Voluntary (N = 192 responses)

Compulsory (N = 171 responses)

P

Response rate

192/343 (56.0%)

171/171 (100%)

< 0.001

Overall Ratinga [Mean (SD)]

 Internal Medicine

53.77(7.91)

55.94(8.78)

0.38

 Surgery

49.70(7.93)

50.33(4.50)

0.78

 Pediatrics

55.83(7.90)

53.38(3.96)

0.21

 Ob-Gyn

56.60(6.59)

50.32(9.67)

0.02

 PC

55.33(8.88)

54.95(5.92)

0.86

 Neurology

49.86(9.92)

51.43(8.48)

0.55

 Psychiatry

52.33(8.92)

53.58(8.47)

0.65

 All Clerkships

53.19(8.69)

52.90(7.63)

0.76

Presence of Commentsb [N (%)]

44(22.9%)

42(24.6%)

0.71

Aggregate grades of respondents [Mean (SD)]

79.53 (4.09)

78.76 (3.51)

0.001

  1. Abbreviation: Ob-Gyn Obstetrics and Gynecology
  2. aOverall rating per clerkship was calculated for respondents, where the number of obtained evaluations per clerkship is less than 49 (the total number of students in the class) in the voluntary group, depending on the response rate per clerkship, and equal to 49 in the compulsory group
  3. bComments were examined on the whole number of obtained responses in each group