Reliability of Self-Assessment among Medical Students at Walailak University

Background and Objective: Owning to self-assessment limitations, reflective practice and feedback is one of the methods help improving self-assessment accuracy. So far, there is little evidence in its practicability in Thai medical students. The aims of this study were (1) to investigate the effectiveness of the reflective practice and feedback on improving self-assessment accuracy and learning outcomes in medical students at Walailak University; (2) to explore participants’ perspectives on the reflective practice and feedback.

Methods: This prospective uncontrolled study was conducted in the academic year 2017 at Walailak University. Third-year students voluntarily enrolled into the study. Surveys were contributed before the two examinations that consisted of one-hundred multiple choice questions. Reflective practice and feedback session was held after the first examination. Baseline characteristics, self-estimated scores, declared strengths and weaknesses, and actual scores were used for data analysis.

Results: We had 38 volunteers (77.6%) with male predominance (57.9%) in participants. The mean age was 20.6 ± 0.6 years. After the reflective practice and feedback, the difference between the median of self-estimation score and the median of actual score decreased significantly (p < 0.05). The actual scores increased by 20.7 percent (95%CI 15.3-26.0) significantly (p < 0.001). Majority of participants (57.9%) agreed that the reflective practice and feedback was helpful.

Conclusions: Reflective practice and feedback improve self-assessment accuracy and learning outcome in Thai medical students. Further work needs to be carried out to investigate whether the results are transferable to other Thai medical schools or not.