Presentation
Considerations for Behavioral Assessment in the Era of Competency-Based Medical Education
DescriptionCompetency-based medical education (CBME) has continued to gain traction in recent years to ensure healthcare professionals enter the workforce equipped with all the skills needed to effectively promote the health and wellbeing of patients. CBME shifts the focus of curricular progression from time-based methods (e.g., certain number of weeks on clinical rotation) to competency-based methods (e.g., learner demonstrates knowledge and skill obtained via behaviors) to ensure learners can effectively apply the learning objectives relevant at each specific stage of their study (i.e., achieve program milestones).
A plethora of organizations have generated frameworks to aid healthcare organizations in assessing competency achievement of their learners (e.g., Association of American Medical Colleges’ Entrustable Professional Activities; Interprofessional Education Collaborative Core Competencies). For example, the AAMC describes a series of thirteen Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs), which are discrete events used to assess learners’ application of core competencies. These events represent common practices providers must conduct in the clinical environment and are events learners may be expected to perform during their study, such as when they are on clinical rotations (e.g., EPA 8 is to “Give or Receive a Patient Handover to Transition Care Responsibility”). However, clinical environments present challenges for comprehensive and consistent assessment, as well as ethical concerns related to having learners work with real patients prior to successfully demonstrating competency. Programmatic events such as Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCEs) are often used as forums for organizations to evaluate the achievement of such competencies in a controlled environment. However, these programs have been criticized as highly resource intensive to implement and assess. They typically require significant personnel, equipment, and financial resources to conduct the event, and they may require additional resources before or after the event to ensure assessment methodologies were reliable, valid, and appropriate based on the stage of the learners.
The current presentation will discuss factors relevant to behavioral assessments which can be used to inform resource allocation for competency-based assessment. Topics discussed will include considerations related to implementation (e.g., in-person versus virtual), competencies/ behaviors under assessment (e.g., EPAs; technical versus non-technical skills), selection of observers/raters (e.g., novice versus expert, relevance of subject matter expertise), observer training methods (e.g., frame-of-reference versus error training), context of evaluation (e.g., based on real versus simulated scenarios; live or video recorded instances), purpose of evaluation (e.g., formative versus summative; longitudinal assessment versus singular time point), and resource considerations for combinations of these factors.
A plethora of organizations have generated frameworks to aid healthcare organizations in assessing competency achievement of their learners (e.g., Association of American Medical Colleges’ Entrustable Professional Activities; Interprofessional Education Collaborative Core Competencies). For example, the AAMC describes a series of thirteen Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs), which are discrete events used to assess learners’ application of core competencies. These events represent common practices providers must conduct in the clinical environment and are events learners may be expected to perform during their study, such as when they are on clinical rotations (e.g., EPA 8 is to “Give or Receive a Patient Handover to Transition Care Responsibility”). However, clinical environments present challenges for comprehensive and consistent assessment, as well as ethical concerns related to having learners work with real patients prior to successfully demonstrating competency. Programmatic events such as Objective Structured Clinical Exams (OSCEs) are often used as forums for organizations to evaluate the achievement of such competencies in a controlled environment. However, these programs have been criticized as highly resource intensive to implement and assess. They typically require significant personnel, equipment, and financial resources to conduct the event, and they may require additional resources before or after the event to ensure assessment methodologies were reliable, valid, and appropriate based on the stage of the learners.
The current presentation will discuss factors relevant to behavioral assessments which can be used to inform resource allocation for competency-based assessment. Topics discussed will include considerations related to implementation (e.g., in-person versus virtual), competencies/ behaviors under assessment (e.g., EPAs; technical versus non-technical skills), selection of observers/raters (e.g., novice versus expert, relevance of subject matter expertise), observer training methods (e.g., frame-of-reference versus error training), context of evaluation (e.g., based on real versus simulated scenarios; live or video recorded instances), purpose of evaluation (e.g., formative versus summative; longitudinal assessment versus singular time point), and resource considerations for combinations of these factors.
Event Type
Oral Presentations
TimeWednesday, March 278:30am - 8:52am CDT
LocationSalon A-4
Simulation and Education