Policy on Narrative Assessment in Phase 2/3 Courses

  • Responsible: Office of Educational Affairs, Senior Associate and Associate Deans
  • Audience: Students, Faculty, Staff
  • Approved by: CCIA Approval Date: 12/12/2024
  • LCME Element: 9.5 Narrative Assessment
  • Purpose: This policy ensures that students taking core clerkships and clinical selectives receive written feedback that will help them gauge their performance to identify strengths and areas for improvement.
  • Narrative assessment: Written comments from faculty that assess student performance and achievement in meeting specific objectives of a course or clerkship, such as professionalism, clinical reasoning.
  • Core Clerkships: A core clerkship is defined as a required phase 2 clinical course.
  • Clinical Selective: A clinical course that meets a specific requirement for the MD degree completion (i.e., Subinternship, Acute Care Course, or Physician-Assessed Patient-Facing Course).

The College is committed to providing students with individualized narrative assessment, defined as written commentary by a faculty member regarding a student’s academic performance or professional development. Such narrative assessment will be provided at the conclusion of each core clerkship or clinical selective.