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

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.

Automated summary

This study analyzed the relationship between medical student duty hours, shelf scores, and overall clerkship performance in obstetrics and gynecology. The results showed that the length of duty hours did not significantly affect the exam scores or clerkship grades, except for working longer hours in the last 2 weeks, which was associated with higher shelf scores.