Medical Student Performance Evaluation

The Office of Admissions and Student Affairs conducts evaluations intended to provide residency program directors an honest and objective summary of a student’s salient experiences, attributes, and academic performance throughout their medical school progression. It is a mandatory component of all residency applications

Process 

The University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine (UNR Med) abides by the most recent recommendations of the Association of American Medical College (AAMC) Group on Student Affairs regarding the content and format of the evaluation.

All fourth year medical students intending to apply for residency are required to meet with the Associate Dean of Admissions and Student Affairs (AD-ASA) or another individual identified by the Associate Dean prior to September 1 of the year in which they will apply. Any student may make a request to the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs (SAD-AA) to meet with someone other than the AD-ASA. The SAD-AA will identify an alternate individual in consultation with the AD-ASA. 

Each student will be required to sign a waiver allowing UNR Med to release to document to the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS) or other entity as required for their residency application. All students will be given an opportunity to review their MSPE and will be provided a final copy of the document. The MSPE will be uploaded to ERAS or other entity  for release on the last Wednesday of September or alternate deadline put forth by the AAMC. 

The MSPE is part of a student’s official record. As such, any changes or additions made once an MSPE has been submitted will be made only as addenda to the original. Addenda will only be added if a student is (re)applying in a follow-up match cycle and should only include information that is new since the original submission. Addenda will also be added and transmitted to programs if UNR Med has knowledge that the MSPE, as written, is no longer accurate. No addenda will be added for the purposes of the Supplemental Offer & Acceptance Program (SOAP).

Content of the MSPE 

The MSPE contains six sections: Identifying Information, Noteworthy Characteristics, Academic History, Academic Progress, Summary, and Medical School Information. 

• Identifying Information includes the student’s legal name, year in school, name and location of the medical school.
• Noteworthy Characteristics includes information intended to help a residency program selection committee review applicants holistically to achieve a residency class that brings a diverse set of background experiences, characteristics and perspectives. At UNR Med, students will provide a maximum of three characteristics in two sentences or less, in consultation with their designated advisor and/ or the AD-ASA.
• Academic History includes the following information:
  • The month and year of the student’s initial matriculation to and expected graduation from medical school.
  • An explanation of any extensions, leave(s) of absence, gap(s), or break(s) in the student’s educational program.
  • Information about the student’s prior, current, or expected enrollment in and the month and year of the student’s expected graduation from dual, degree programs or completion of a scholarly concentration.
  • Information detailing formal remediation of any clinical skills course.
  • Information detailing remediation of any USMLE Step exam or NBME-subject exam.
  • Information detailing instances of academic probation or other adverse action(s) imposed on the student by UNR Med during the student’s medical education.
• Academic Progress includes information about the student’s academic performance and professional attributes in preclinical/basic science coursework and core clinical and elective rotations.
  • This section will include a description of how UNR Med defines professionalism and how that is assessed. A separate statement will be included regarding the student’s attainment of professional standards detailing instances of exemplary professionalism, as well as lapses in professionalism that have resulted in academic probation or other actions determined by the UNR Med Student Promotion and Conduct Committee.
  • Narrative assessments from preclinical and clinical courses will be included and based upon summative faculty evaluations that are not edited for content. Minor editing for length, grammar, and spelling will be undertaken so long as it enhances the readability of the document without substantively affecting the objective assessment provided by the faculty.
  • Clinical Courses and Elective Rotations will be included in chronological order and include a breakdown of the components of each clerkship grade and the weight of each component (for example, % clinical assessment, % shelf exam, % case write-up, % OSCE, etc.). Graphic representations of students’ comparative performance will also be shown
• A summary statement will be included that assigns an evaluative level of distinguished, outstanding, excellent, very good or good to each student based on a rubric. This rubric includes assessment of pre-clerkship and clerkship performance, USMLE performance and scores, as available, leadership, service, teaching, research and contributions made with a dual-degree or scholarly concentration. The MSPE rubric is presented to each class annually and adjustments to the rubric may be made at any time at the discretion of the AD-ASA.  The MSPE rubric is for internal use only and not submitted with the MSPE to ERAS or other entity. 

Review & Appeal of the MSPE 

All students will be given an opportunity to review their MSPE and will be provided a final copy of the document. Should a student disagree with any part of the MSPE, the following process will be followed. 

Appealing the Evaluative Comments - Any changes to your evaluative comments must be requested to your course or clerkship directors.

To appeal your MSPE Evaluative Level or Language – a request must be submitted to the AD-ASA via email with an evidenced-based rationale based on the rubric. 

If an agreement cannot be made, your appeal will be forwarded to the SAD-AA for a final decision with no further options for appeal.