Evaluating medical students' satisfaction with clinical oral assessors.

Abstract

As part of a programme to improve the quality of clinical oral assessments, the satisfaction of two groups of medical students (3rd and 5th year) with their clinical assessors following an end of year oral assessment, was evaluated using a simple four part questionnaire. 109 of 116 students (94%) completed the questionnaire. The overall reports by students were positive regarding the assessors in 91% of cases. The majority of students (79%) recorded only positive and complimentary responses to all four questions. Negative responses to the assessors' performance were more likely if the student was subsequently judged to be unsatisfactory by the assessors. Students deemed unsatisfactory comprised only 27% of the sample population but produced 65% of the negative responses (p0.01). These results suggest a high degree of student satisfaction with their clinical assessors and probably reflect the efficiency of assessor training.