Do clinician flagged MyProgress entries predict assessment outcomes in Year 3 medical students?

INTRODUCTION/PROBLEM
in year 3-5s some entries into MyProgess are signed off by a clinician, usually a doctor, observing an activity. An email is sent to the doctor who has an option to ‘flag’ entries they do not recognise to be removed. Anecdotally, students with higher numbers of flagged entries are associated with having poorer assessment outcomes.

OBJECTIVE(S)
To determine whether clinician-initiated removals of MyProgress entries are associated with poor outcome at end of year assessment in Year 3 students.

METHODS/APPROACH
the number of removed entries was determined from the MyProgress database. end of year outcome was any module fail (OSCE, Progress Test, clinical attachment, reflective practice portfolio).
Interactions with other areas of MyProgress known to be associated with poor outcome were determined at the end of semester 1 (Attendance in bottom decile, Reflective practice portfolio engagement)

RESULTS/EVALUATION/LESSONS LEARNED
21/274 (7.7%) students failed at least one module. 61/274 (22.2%) students had at least one entry removed from myprogress. Having an entry removed from myprogress was associated with significantly increased risk of failing the module (19.7%) compared to students with no entries removed (4.2%, chi square 16.0; p<0.001).

When considered together with other risk factors for poor assessment outcome (any removal, poor attendance, poor portfolio engagement) students with none of these factors present (n=148) had a fail rate of 2.7%, students with 1 factor (n=100) had a fail rate of 8.0%, students with 2 factors (n=23) had a fail rate of 30.4% and students with 3 factors present (n=3) had a fail rate of 66.7% (ANOVA F=13.9; p<0.001)

CONCLUSION/IMPLICATIONS

Students with an entry removed from Myprogress are nearly 5 times more likely to fail a module at the end of the year than those students without. Combining this with other risk factors can give a clearer picture of students at risk of poor assessment outcomes who may benefit from additional support.