Empowerment evaluation was adopted by Stanford University's School of Medicine to engage in curricular reform. It was also used to prepare for an accreditation site visit. Empowerment evaluation is a guided form of self-evaluation. It was selected because the principles and practices of empowerment evaluation resonated with the collaborative and participatory nature of the curricular reform in the School. This article highlights one of the most important features of an empowerment evaluation: a critical friend. This individual has evaluation expertise but serves as a coach, advisor, or guide, rather than "the expert". The evaluation is in the hands of the people in the program, but a critical friend helps to keep it on track and rigorous. As one indication of the importance of this role, student ratings on selected clerkship rotations, where a critical friend was requested to respond to student concerns, resulted in significant increases in student ratings.
Empowerment evaluation at the Stanford University School of Medicine: using a critical friend to improve the clerkship experience