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

Purpose: To describe the association between duty hours (DH) and shelf exam score, and between DH and overall grade.

Background: Medical students are required to comply with the same DH regulations as residents. However, variation exists between the total DH worked due to diversity of clinical sites, surgical rotations, and student engagement. The impact of DH on exam scores and clinical grade is poorly understood.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study of students in OB/GYN clerkship at a single academic center from 8/18-6/19. Weekly duty hours tabulated and averages obtained. Students working more than 75%ile for DH weekly (long hours) compared to those working less. Impact of long hours in last two weeks of clerkship also examined. Outcomes of interest were high overall grade ( >95%), high shelf score ( >90%), and low shelf score (< 60%) adjusted for quartile of year. Simple statistics used to analyze data.

Results: The average weekly DH was 43.1hr/wk (SD 7.32hr). This didn’t vary by gender. Students in the latter half of the year worked longer (45.2 hrs/wk vs 41.9 hrs/wk, p=0.03). The 75%ile of weekly DH was 47.1 hrs. Students working long hours were not more likely to have low shelf (21.7% vs 30.4%,p=0.6), high shelf (28.3% vs 28.6%,p >0.99), or high overall grade (25% vs 28.9%,p >0.99). Long hours in the last 2 weeks of the clerkship was not associated with high overall grade (33.3% vs 31.1%,p >0.99) or low shelf (21.7% vs 34.2%,p=0.32). A trend toward high shelf scores was seen (41.3% vs 23.2%,p0.06).

Discussions: Long duty hours, even late in the clerkship, were not associated with high or low shelf scores, nor high overall grade.

Topics: CREOG & APGO Annual Meeting, 2020, Student, Resident, Faculty, Clerkship Director, Clerkship Coordinator, Medical Knowledge, UME, Assessment, General Ob-Gyn,

General Information


Intended
Audience
Student,Resident,Faculty,Clerkship Director,Clerkship Coordinator,
Competencies
Addressed
Medical Knowledge,
Educational
Continuum
UME,
Educational
Focus
Assessment,
Clinical Focus
General Ob-Gyn,

Author Information

Benjamin Harris, MD, MPH; Duke University; Jordan Tool; Melody Baldwin, MD, MPH; Sarah Dotters-Katz, MD, MPHE

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