The Use of Paired Comparisons for Developing Criteria for the Observation of Student Clinical Performance

Abstract

The method of paired comparisons was used to obtain rankings of 42 students in terms of their performance in emergency and screening clinic rotations. Although the comprehensive nature of the ranking might suggest a divergence of opinion regarding individual ranks, the composite ranking byfourfaculty members achieved a reliability of.86. This suggests that paired comparisons may provide a method of obtaining internally consistent assessments of students on more subtle aspects of clinical performance than those assessed by conventional multiple-choice tests or noncommittal written performance ratings.