Evaluation der rztlichen Ausbildung [Evaluation of medical education]

[english] Background: The importance of evaluation is increasing, not only in medical education. Apart from giving feedback to the teachers the results of evaluations can be used for allocation of educational funds. At the medical faculty of the University of Hamburg the evaluation of medical education has been performed since ten years. Results: An analysis of the Hamburg experience in the standardized evaluation of medical education shows a series of problems. 1. The cumulative evaluation of curriculum parts tends to turn out different than the detailed evaluation of its consisting parts. 2. Theoretical courses tend to be assessed worse than clinical courses - irrespective of their real quality. The reason for this "handicap" of theoretical courses is that students tend to rate their benefit for clinical practice lower. 3. There are differences between prompt and delayed assessments of the same courses. 4. Students' assessment also depends on the stage of their training and on the didactic type of the evaluated course. Conclusion: Ranking of courses should be performed with caution. To improve reliability and validity of results the following suggestions are made: 1. Results of cumulative evaluation of curriculum parts should be interpreted with care. 2. Unequal opportunities of theoretical and clinical courses to gain good results should be considered. 3. Repeated assessments and longitudinal comparisons are essential. 4. Comparisons should be made only between similar didactical types of courses. 5. Results should be analysed with respect to their possible causes, preferably by mixed evaluation commissions. 6. It is recommended to evaluate aspects of process quality rather than of result quality. [german] Hintergrund: Die Evaluation von Lehrveranstaltungen und curricularen Abschnitten durch Studierende nimmt nicht nur in der rztlichen Ausbildung zu. Neben der Rückmeldung an die Dozenten k nnen die Ergebnisse eine wichtige Basis für budget re Allokationsentscheidungen in der Lehre bilden. An der Medizinischen Fakult t der Universit t Hamburg wurden seit zehn Jahren Erfahrungen mit der Evaluation von Lehrveranstaltungen gesammelt. Ergebnisse: Eine Analyse der Hamburger Erfahrungen zeigt, dass die Ergebnisse standardisierter Evaluationen der rztlichen Ausbildung eine Reihe von Problemen in sich bergen: 1. Die Gesamtbeurteilung eines Studienabschnitts scheint anders auszufallen als die Beurteilung der darin enthaltenen einzelnen Veranstaltungen. 2. Theoretische bzw. patientenferne F cher werden - in der Regel unabh ngig von deren tats chlicher Qualit t