Assessment of Entrustable Professional Activities Using an Online Simulation Platform During Transition to Emergency Medicine Residency: A Mixed Methods Pilot Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia R Peng ◽  
Kimberly A Schertzer ◽  
Holly A Caretta-Weyer ◽  
Stefanie S Sebok-Syer ◽  
William Lu ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The 13 Core Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) are key competency-based learning outcomes in the transition from undergraduate to graduate medical education. Five of these EPAs (EPA2: prioritizing differential, EPA3: recommending and interpreting tests, EPA4: entering orders and prescriptions, EPA5: documenting clinical encounters, and EPA10: recognizing urgent and emergent conditions) are uniquely suited for online assessment. OBJECTIVE For this pilot study, we created a web-based simulation platform for diagnostic assessment of these EPAs and examined its feasibility and acceptability. METHODS Four simulation cases underwent three rounds of consensus panels and pilot testing. Incoming emergency medicine interns (n=15) completed all cases, and up to 4 “look for” statements, which encompassed specific EPAs, were generated for each participant: 1) performing harmful or missing actions, 2) narrow differential or wrong final diagnosis, 3) having errors in documentation, and 4) lack of recognition and stabilization of urgent diagnoses. Finally, we interviewed a sample of interns (n=5) and residency leadership (n=5) and analyzed the responses using thematic analysis. RESULTS All participants had at least 1 missing critical action and 40% participants performed at least one harmful action across all 4 cases. The final diagnosis was not included in the differential diagnosis in more than half of assessments (53%). Other errors included choosing the incorrect documentation (40%) and indiscriminately applying oxygen (60%). The themes to the interviews included: psychological safety of the interface, ability to assess learning, and fidelity of cases. The most valuable feature cited was the ability to place orders in a realistic electronic medical record interface. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrates the feasibility and acceptability of this platform for diagnostic assessment of specific EPAs. This approach rapidly identifies potential areas of concern for incoming interns using an asynchronous format, provides this feedback in a manner appreciated by residency leadership, and informs individualized learning plans.

Author(s):  
Severin Pinilla ◽  
Andrea Cantisani ◽  
Stefan Klöppel ◽  
Werner Strik ◽  
Christoph Nissen ◽  
...  

Abstract Objective The authors evaluated a reformed psychiatry clerkship curriculum based on entrustable professional activities (EPAs). Methods The authors conducted an exploratory pilot study of a reformed clerkship curriculum based on EPAs. A novel workplace-based assessment format including an entrustment-supervision scale and curricular adaptations were introduced. The Kirkpatrick model was used to evaluate outcomes of the reformed clerkship curriculum on three levels (1 = acceptance, 2 = learning, 3 = change of behavior). Results The pilot student cohort (n = 10) completed a questionnaire, 180 self-assessments (18 per student) on need for supervision, and 63 workplace-based assessments (6.3 per student, in 4 weeks). Level 1: high overall satisfaction with the clerkship (five-point Likert item: average, 4.9; range: 4.0–5.0). Level 2: the overall significant decrease in self-assessed need for supervision before and after the clerkship was two supervision levels (direct to indirect supervision; p < 0.05). The most frequently documented admissions included schizophrenic disorders (n = 11; 28%), affective disorders (n = 10; 25%), substance abuse disorders (n = 5; 13%), and anxiety and stress-related disorders (n = 5; 13%). Level 3: clinical supervisors used history taking, assessing the mental status, and documentation and presentation for workplace-based assessments. According to supervisors’ ratings, there was a decreasing need for supervision from the first to last week of the clerkship. Conclusions Students reacted positively to the reformed clerkship curriculum. The workplace-based assessments with entrustment ratings appeared to support achievement of competency-based learning objectives. Better understanding of how to cover assessment of all core EPAs in the psychiatry clerkship is needed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Severin Pinilla ◽  
Alexandra Kyrou ◽  
Stefan Klöppel ◽  
Werner Strik ◽  
Christoph Nissen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) in competency-based, undergraduate medical education (UME) have led to new formative workplace-based assessments (WBA) using entrustment-supervision scales in clerkships. We conducted an observational, prospective cohort study to explore the usefulness of a WBA designed to assess core EPAs in a psychiatry clerkship. Methods We analyzed changes in self-entrustment ratings of students and the supervisors’ ratings per EPA. Timing and frequencies of learner-initiated WBAs based on a prospective entrustment-supervision scale and resultant narrative feedback were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. Predictors for indirect supervision levels were explored via regression analysis, and narrative feedback was coded using thematic content analysis. Students evaluated the WBA after each clerkship rotation. Results EPA 1 (“Take a patient’s history”), EPA 2 (“Assess physical & mental status”) and EPA 8 (“Document & present a clinical encounter”) were most frequently used for learner-initiated WBAs throughout the clerkship rotations in a sample of 83 students. Clinical residents signed off on the majority of the WBAs (71%). EPAs 1, 2, and 8 showed the largest increases in self-entrustment and received most of the indirect supervision level ratings. We found a moderate, positive correlation between self-entrusted supervision levels at the end of the clerkship and the number of documented entrustment-supervision ratings per EPA (p < 0.0001). The number of entrustment ratings explained 6.5% of the variance in the supervisors’ ratings for EPA 1. Narrative feedback was documented for 79% (n = 214) of the WBAs. Most narratives addressed the Medical Expert role (77%, n = 208) and used reinforcement (59%, n = 161) as a feedback strategy. Students perceived the feedback as beneficial. Conclusions Using formative WBAs with an entrustment-supervision scale and prompts for written feedback facilitated targeted, high-quality feedback and effectively supported students’ development toward self-entrusted, indirect supervision levels.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (01) ◽  
pp. 026-030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pooja Sharma ◽  
Nadeem Tanveer ◽  
Aditi Goyal

Abstract INTRODUCTION: During the past decade, there has been a paradigm shift in medical education from the problem-based learning to competency-based training. This has forced a rethink on the way we evaluate the residents and finally give them the right to handle patients independently. This study makes the first attempt towards designing competency-based training program for pathology residents by formulating the entrustable professional activities (EPAs) for the 1st year pathology residents. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire comprising 18 potential EPAs in histopathology and 12 potential EPAs in cytology were circulated among the residents of Pathology Department. The respondents were asked to grade the EPAs on a scale of 0–4 based on how important they considered that activity as EPA. The cumulative score of each EPA was divided by the number of respondents to arrive at the average score. The EPAs with an average score of 3 or more qualified to be shortlisted as consensus EPAs. RESULTS: Five activities each of histopathology and cytopathology had an average score of 3 or above and were shortlisted as EPAs for the 1st year pathology postgraduates. Each of these was also mapped to their respective competencies. CONCLUSION: There is an urgent need to restructure the postgraduate pathology curriculum in line with competency-based training. This study is the first step in this direction.


2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 441-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael S. Beeson ◽  
Steven Warrington ◽  
Amber Bradford-Saffles ◽  
Danielle Hart

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
pp. 237428952110417
Author(s):  
Bronwyn H. Bryant

Entrustable professional activities are an intuitive form of workplace-based assessment that can support competency-based medical education. Many entrustable professional activities have been written and published, but few studies describe the feasibility or implementation of entrustable professional activities in graduate medical education. The frozen section entrustable professional activit was introduced into the pathology residency training at the University of Vermont for postgraduate year 1 at the start of their training in frozen section. The feasibility of the entrustable professional activit was evaluated based on 3 criteria: (a) utilization, (b) support of frozen section training, and (c) generating data to support entrustment decision about residents’ readiness to take call. The entrustable professional activit was well utilized and satisfactory to residents, faculty, pathologists’ assistants, and Clinical Competency Committee members. Most members of the Clinical Competency Committee agreed they had sufficient data and noted higher confidence in assessing resident readiness to take call with the addition of entrustable professional activit to the residents’ assessment portfolio. Residents did not endorse it helped them prepare for call; however, the interruption to frozen section training due to the COVID-19 pandemic was a significant contributing factor. The frozen section entrustable professional activit is a feasible addition to pathology resident training based on utilization, support of training, and generation of data to support entrustment decisions for graduated responsibilities. The implementation and integration of the entrustable professional activit into pathology training at our institution is described with discussion of adjustments for future use.


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