Innovations report: A grading committee for a required fourth-year emergency medicine clerkship

Background

Assessment of medical students in the clinical learning environment is fraught with challenges. Seemingly small variations in clinical clerkship evaluation can significantly impact a student's future. As such, the integrity of the grade selection process must be heavily scrutinized. Group decision making in the form of a clerkship grading committee may be part of a solution to address this complex problem.

Methods

We conducted a retrospective observational study to describe grading committee decisions for a required fourth-year EM clerkship from August 2021 to April 2022. Literature on best practices for group decision making and assessment were reviewed. This informed the development and implementation of the committee process. Each committee meeting was video recorded and coded for discussion time per student, times the committee grade differed from historical-grade cutoffs with reasoning, and the frequency a committee member voiced a first-hand account of student performance.

Results

Data from nine meetings was reviewed (86 students). The mean discussion time per student was 2 min 13 s (range 11 s to 9 min 22 s). The final committee decision differed from historical-grade cutoffs for nine students (10%), six were adjusted above and three below. In 64% (55/86) of student reviews a committee member voiced a first-hand experience of working with the student. Positive grade adjustments were made due to outlier evaluations and negative adjustments were made for professionalism concerns.

Conclusions

Grading committees are a means to conduct a comprehensive review of student performance and offer shared ownership of the grade decision among committee members. More study is needed to directly determine their potential benefit and role in clerkship grading.