Background: A fundamental function of attending faculty is to teach and mentor medical students, but the benefit of the resident's role is recognized increasingly.
Methods: Our Standardized Institutional Clinical Clerkship Assessment allows students to rate 27 factors relative to a clinical clerkship. Scores from 1998 to 2005 were used to evaluate our surgical clerkship program and to compare resident and attending teachers. Student surgery career choices also were monitored.
Results: Medical students routinely scored residents more highly than attending faculty. Attendings' scores did not improve; however, residents' teaching and overall clerkship scores improved during the study period and paralleled students' increased selection of a surgical career.
Conclusions: Students perceived residents as teachers more than attendings. Residents may have significant influence over students' career choice by their teaching and mentoring activities, which benefit attending efforts.