Development of the Brussels Clinical Evaluation

Eveline Bruneel*, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Study
Guidance Center, Brussels, Belgium
Nicole Pouliart, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Clinical
Clerkships, Brussels, Belgium
Background: Following growing international interest
in the educational environment of medical education
combined with an actual need to reform the clinical
education of undergraduate students at the Vrije
Universiteit Brussel (VUB), the Brussels Clinical
Evaluation (BruCe) project was set up in 2009.
Summary of Work: BruCe was developed in order to
be able to investigate the educational environment
during clinical rotations in the undergraduate Master
phase of the 7 year medical training at the VUB. The
choice was made to develop an explicitly studentbased,
practical enquiry, which combines an
evaluation of both clinical teaching environment and
teachers, that can be used within the variety of
environments in which students do their clerkships.
Summary of Results: A development cycle was used,
starting with literature review and focus group leading
to BruCe 1.0. after which two pilot studies were
conducted. A meta-enquiry and renewed literature
review led to BruCe 2.0. with subsequent repeated
meta-enquiry.
Discussion and Conclusions: BruCe 1.0., with 26
questions concerning the department and 5 questions
concerning the evaluation of the teachers, was used
from 2010 till 2011. The changes towards BruCe 2.0.
were mainly concentrated on redundant, less relevant
and/or less clearly formulated questions. BruCe 2.0
combines an evaluation of the clinical settings and
teachers, to ensure a grounded base for educational
changes within the clerkship program. Further metaenquiries
and statistical analyses on 3305 completed
enquiries will have to be conducted to ensure the
validity and reliability of the enquiry.
Take-home messages: Qualitative evaluation of
enquiries allows fine-tuning in attendance of a
sufficient number of data for quantitative analysis.