Differences in Self-expression Reflect Formal Evaluation in a Fourth-year Emergency Medicine Clerkship

Introduction: Medical schools have begun to incorporate self-reflection exercises into their curricula, with the belief that these exercises help students master the material more deeply and perform better. Reflection may be a potential learning tool for emergency medicine (EM), but there are few...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Michael Chary, Amy Leuthauser, Kevin Hu, Braden Hexom
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: eScholarship Publishing, University of California 2017-01-01
Series:Western Journal of Emergency Medicine
Subjects:
Online Access:http://escholarship.org/uc/item/775324rm
_version_ 1818649347214016512
author Michael Chary
Amy Leuthauser
Kevin Hu
Braden Hexom
author_facet Michael Chary
Amy Leuthauser
Kevin Hu
Braden Hexom
author_sort Michael Chary
collection DOAJ
description Introduction: Medical schools have begun to incorporate self-reflection exercises into their curricula, with the belief that these exercises help students master the material more deeply and perform better. Reflection may be a potential learning tool for emergency medicine (EM), but there are few data supporting this hypothesis. The authors evaluated the relationship between a linguistic marker of the degree of reflection after a student’s shift in an emergency department and that student’s clerkship performance. Methods: The authors conducted a retrospective case series by analyzing the performance and reflective statements of 116 students from a single medical school who participated in a required EM clerkship at one or two of four clinical sites from 2013-14. After each shift, an attending emergency physician evaluated the student according to the RIME (Reporter-Interpreter-Manager- Educator) scheme. The authors developed software to extract the text from those comments, remove uninformative words and standardize the remaining words. The authors determined the most common words and two-word phrases that students used to describe their shift. The correlation between students’ final clerkship grades and the fraction of student comments with at least one content word was analyzed. Results: Of the 145 possible students, 116 were included for analysis. The other 29 were excluded as they were visiting students who did not receive a fi nal numeric grade. The correlation between final grade and the number of completed self-reflections was 0.32. The correlation between final grade and the average number of words in each self -reflection was 0.21. The first correlation is significantly greater than 0 (p=0.03, t-test), but the second correlation is not (p=0.16, t-test). The median final grade of those who wrote reflections on more tha n half of their shifts was significantly greater than those who wrote reflections half of the time, 83.675 versus 79.23 (p=0.05, 2-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). Conclusion: Students who reflected more frequently received a higher grade in an EM clerkship for fourth-year medical students. The number of words in each reflection was not significantly correlated with grade performance. The most common words and phrases students wrote were associated with learning and managing patients.
first_indexed 2024-12-17T01:32:52Z
format Article
id doaj.art-f719fa3fa50c4ef3bfd0375e25798c8b
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1936-900X
1936-9018
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-17T01:32:52Z
publishDate 2017-01-01
publisher eScholarship Publishing, University of California
record_format Article
series Western Journal of Emergency Medicine
spelling doaj.art-f719fa3fa50c4ef3bfd0375e25798c8b2022-12-21T22:08:32ZengeScholarship Publishing, University of CaliforniaWestern Journal of Emergency Medicine1936-900X1936-90182017-01-0118117418010.5811/westjem.2016.11.31262Differences in Self-expression Reflect Formal Evaluation in a Fourth-year Emergency Medicine ClerkshipMichael Chary0Amy Leuthauser1Kevin Hu2Braden Hexom3New York Presbyterian/Queens, Department of Emergency Medicine, Flushing, New YorkUniversity of Otago, Dunedin Hospital, Dunedin, New ZealandIcahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Department of Emergency Medicine, New York, New YorkRush Medical College, Department of Emergency Medicine, Chicago, IllinoisIntroduction: Medical schools have begun to incorporate self-reflection exercises into their curricula, with the belief that these exercises help students master the material more deeply and perform better. Reflection may be a potential learning tool for emergency medicine (EM), but there are few data supporting this hypothesis. The authors evaluated the relationship between a linguistic marker of the degree of reflection after a student’s shift in an emergency department and that student’s clerkship performance. Methods: The authors conducted a retrospective case series by analyzing the performance and reflective statements of 116 students from a single medical school who participated in a required EM clerkship at one or two of four clinical sites from 2013-14. After each shift, an attending emergency physician evaluated the student according to the RIME (Reporter-Interpreter-Manager- Educator) scheme. The authors developed software to extract the text from those comments, remove uninformative words and standardize the remaining words. The authors determined the most common words and two-word phrases that students used to describe their shift. The correlation between students’ final clerkship grades and the fraction of student comments with at least one content word was analyzed. Results: Of the 145 possible students, 116 were included for analysis. The other 29 were excluded as they were visiting students who did not receive a fi nal numeric grade. The correlation between final grade and the number of completed self-reflections was 0.32. The correlation between final grade and the average number of words in each self -reflection was 0.21. The first correlation is significantly greater than 0 (p=0.03, t-test), but the second correlation is not (p=0.16, t-test). The median final grade of those who wrote reflections on more tha n half of their shifts was significantly greater than those who wrote reflections half of the time, 83.675 versus 79.23 (p=0.05, 2-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov test). Conclusion: Students who reflected more frequently received a higher grade in an EM clerkship for fourth-year medical students. The number of words in each reflection was not significantly correlated with grade performance. The most common words and phrases students wrote were associated with learning and managing patients.http://escholarship.org/uc/item/775324rmClerkshipEmergency MedicineSelf-expression
spellingShingle Michael Chary
Amy Leuthauser
Kevin Hu
Braden Hexom
Differences in Self-expression Reflect Formal Evaluation in a Fourth-year Emergency Medicine Clerkship
Western Journal of Emergency Medicine
Clerkship
Emergency Medicine
Self-expression
title Differences in Self-expression Reflect Formal Evaluation in a Fourth-year Emergency Medicine Clerkship
title_full Differences in Self-expression Reflect Formal Evaluation in a Fourth-year Emergency Medicine Clerkship
title_fullStr Differences in Self-expression Reflect Formal Evaluation in a Fourth-year Emergency Medicine Clerkship
title_full_unstemmed Differences in Self-expression Reflect Formal Evaluation in a Fourth-year Emergency Medicine Clerkship
title_short Differences in Self-expression Reflect Formal Evaluation in a Fourth-year Emergency Medicine Clerkship
title_sort differences in self expression reflect formal evaluation in a fourth year emergency medicine clerkship
topic Clerkship
Emergency Medicine
Self-expression
url http://escholarship.org/uc/item/775324rm
work_keys_str_mv AT michaelchary differencesinselfexpressionreflectformalevaluationinafourthyearemergencymedicineclerkship
AT amyleuthauser differencesinselfexpressionreflectformalevaluationinafourthyearemergencymedicineclerkship
AT kevinhu differencesinselfexpressionreflectformalevaluationinafourthyearemergencymedicineclerkship
AT bradenhexom differencesinselfexpressionreflectformalevaluationinafourthyearemergencymedicineclerkship