Medical Student Duty Hours and Shelf Performance: Is There a Correlation?

Abstract

Objective To date, there is limited information about medical student duty hours, shelf scores, and overall clerkship performance in obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN). As a result, we were curious to know whether spending more time in the clinical environment translated to an improved learning experience or, in contrast, translated to decreased study time and worse overall clerkship performance.

Study Design A retrospective cohort analysis was performed at a single academic medical center of all medical students on the OB/GYN clerkship from August 2018 to June 2019. Recorded student duty hours were tabulated per day and per week, by student. National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) Subject Exam (Shelf) equated percentile scores for the quarter of year were used.

Results Our statistical analysis showed that working long hours did not translate to higher or lower shelf score, or higher overall clerkship grade. However, working longer hours in the last 2 weeks of the clerkship was associated with high shelf score.

Conclusion Longer medical student duty hours did not correlate to higher shelf scores or overall clerkship grades. Future multicenter studies are necessary to evaluate the importance of medical student duty hours and continue optimizing the educational experience of the OB/GYN clerkship.

Key Points

• Clinical hours were not associated with shelf examination scores.

• Clinical hours were not associated with overall clerkship grade.

• Longer clinical hours at the end of clerkship are correlated with higher examination scores.

Keywords

medical students - medical education - duty hours - clerkship - OB/GYN

Publication History

Received: 28 June 2022

Accepted: 22 May 2023

Accepted Manuscript online:
25 May 2023

Article published online:
04 July 2023

• References

• 1 The ACGME 2011 Duty Hour Standards: Enhancing Quality of Care, Supervision, and Resident Professional Development. Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. 2011. Accessed June 1, 2022 at: https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/jgme-monograph.pdf
• 2 Functions and Structure of a Medical School. Liasion Committee on Medical Education. 2020. Accessed June 1, 2022 at: https://lcme.org/wp-content/uploads/filebase/standards/2021-22_Functions-and-Structure_2021-04-16.docx
• 3 Barnum TJ, Halverson AL, Helenowski I, Odell DD. All work and no play: Addressing medical students' concerns about duty hours on the surgical clerkship. Am J Surg 2019; 218 (02) 419-423