Resident ratings of surgical faculty. Improved teaching effectiveness through feedback.

This study was designed to test the effect on teaching effectiveness of providing regular feedback to the faculty of a general surgery residency. A faculty evaluation rating scale was developed as one aspect of an overall "Code of Teaching Responsibility" process. This study compares two cohorts of surgery teaching staff--one during 1980 and the other during 1982 with respect to resident ratings of teaching effectiveness. Thirty-nine identical surgical faculty were in each cohort--19 general surgeons and 20 subspecialty surgeons. The results show that those faculty receiving the lowest ratings in 1980 show the greatest significant improvement in ratings in 1982--even after a statistical artifact was eliminated. Those in the middle range of ratings in 1980 did not change significantly in 1982. The highest rated faculty in 1980 showed a slight decrease in 1982 ratings. There was no difference between mean ratings of general and subspecialty surgeons. These results suggest that negative feedback to surgical residency faculty who are performing least effectively has a more powerful impact than does positive feedback to those teaching staff who are performing satisfactorily.

The effect of academic preparation on medical technologists' registry examination performance.

This study investigated the effects of the college attended and the length of the educational program on ASCP Board of Registry Examination Scores. Registry scores were statistically analyzed for all graduates of Butterworth Hospital's (Grand Rapids, Michigan) Medical Technology program for the years 1970-80. Results indicated college differences in student academic preparation, as measured by the certification examination given by the ASCP Board of Registry. There were no statistical differences in average Registry examination scores for students who complete three versus four year educational programs. Other analyses considered sex differences in college grades and Registry exam performance, and the "grade inflation" phenomenon during the period of this study.

The assessment of clinical competence on the emergency medicine specialty certification examination: the validity of clinically relevant multiple-choice items.

This study investigated the effect of clinically relevant multiple-choice item content on the valid discrimination or statistical separation of groups with known and different levels of experience and training in emergency medicine. Items for a high-clinical-relevance (HCR) subscale were chosen for their highest correlation with independent ratings of clinical performance on 12 simulated patient encounters relevant to emergency medicine. Low-clinical-relevance (LCR) subscale items were selected for their lowest correlation with the same criterion ratings. HCR was significantly more statistically discriminating of candidate groups which differed with respect to years of training and experience in emergency medicine. Additionally, the HCR subscale was more reliable and less difficult than the LCR subscale.