Members of the Clerkship Director’s Committee have been working with the National Board of Medical Examiners as the Surgery Item Writing and Review Task Force. Chaired by Clerkship Directors Committee Chair Jesse Moore MD, the Task Force is working to align the surgery subject exam (also known as the shelf exam) with the ACS/ASE Medical Student Core Curriculum.
A majority of the clerkships in the US use the surgery subject exam in assessing student’s medical knowledge at the completion of the clerkship. The work of the Task Force culminated in a three day meeting at the NBME in Philadelphia in October. The Task Force had the opportunity to review and revise 200 questions for future use on the surgery subject exam. They also reviewed the content outline of the exam and made suggestions to better align it with core surgical topics and the Core Curriculum.
