A self-study of clinical evaluation in the McMaster clerkship.

The McMaster University Undergraduate MD Program participated with nine other schools in a pilot self-study of clinical evaluation under the auspices of the Association of American Medical Colleges. Clerkship planners and teaching faculty responded to questionnaires provided by the AAMC Clinical Evaluation Program, dealing with evaluation system problems. Top ranked problems, as perceived by the McMaster faculty, are presented and compared with the major problem areas seen by the overall group of the nine other schools. Two of these items deal with: (1) the lack of transmission of evaluative information about clerks from one unit to subsequent ones; and (2) faculty unwillingness to record negative evaluations. The former is seen as a serious problem both at McMaster and at the other schools; the latter only at McMaster. The discussion focuses on attempts to explain why these problems exist at McMaster and offers some suggestions for dealing with them.