https://doi.org/10.22037/jme.v12i1,2.1360

The Validity of Medical Students’ Scores in their Internship Courses, a Historical Cohort Study

authors:

avatar AA Haghdoost 1 , avatar Aryan Esmaeili 2 , *

Assistant Professor, Kerman University of Medical
Researcher, Kerman University of Medical Sciences
Journal of Medical Education: Vol.12, issue 1 & 2; e105368
published online: November 08, 2009
article type: Research Article
received: November 08, 2009
accepted: November 08, 2009

how to cite: Haghdoost A, Esmaeili A. The Validity of Medical Students’ Scores in their Internship Courses, a Historical Cohort Study. J Med Edu. 2008;12(1 & 2):e105368. https://doi.org/10.22037/jme.v12i1,2.1360.

Abstract

Background and purpose: Internship, undergraduate clerkships, is the last stage of training for medical students in Iran during which they work as medical doctors under supervision of academic staff for 1.5 years. We assessed the validity of students’ scores in internship in one of the paramount medical universities in Iran.Methods: In an historical cohort study, we collected the medical students’ scores in four consecutive cohorts based on their entrance year to the medical school. We checked the validity of these scores and their internal consistencies by computing the Cronbach’s alpha, and also using the discrimination index.Results: The Cronbach’s alpha of scores in the internship courses was lower than that in the other courses (0.72). In addition, the internship courses had the lowest discrimination index. Overall, female and younger students were more successful in their studies.Conclusion: Although internship is one of the most important parts of medical education, it seems that the validity of students’ scores during this phase was lower than that of other courses. These findings necessitate more work to document the predictive validity of internship evaluations bycorrelating them with future clinical performance.

Fulltext

The body of the article can be found in the PDF file.

References

  • 1.

    References are available in the PDF file.