All faculty within the clerkship should be oriented to their use. Each major item corresponds to one of the competencies, which in turn, can be described by a set of behaviors that encompass the requisite skills, knowledge, and attitudes. In order to keep the form manageable in size, a global rating for each competency is requested. In requesting a global rating, one is requiring the evaluator to weigh several behaviors simultaneously. This can compromise objectivity because different faculty are likely to weigh each component differently.
Evaluation research is ongoing to overcome the global rating problem.
For the time being, this rating form is proposed, with the recommendation that course faculty meet to discuss how to use the form in as uniform a manner as possible. The clerkship portfolio is a vehicle for gathering data and educational products to determine if students have achieved the competencies identified in the curriculum. The purpose of the portfolio is to provide both formative and summative evaluations as well as documentation of what the medical student has learned over the course of the clerkship experience. The portfolio allows evaluation along multiple dimensions and may include a range of evidence such as observation of teacher and learner, examples of classroom and clinical performance, narrative case studies, comments from patients, medical literature critiques, and a student diary or journal. Each clerkship director will set the criteria for the contents of the portfolio, according to the goals of the clerkship and the suggestions of the faculty.