Assessment

PURPOSE: Teamwork is an important and challenging area of learning during the transition from medical graduate to intern. This preliminary investigation examined the psychometric and logistic properties of the Teamwork Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (T-MEX) for the workplace-based assessment of key competencies in working with health care teams. METHOD: The authors designed the T-MEX for direct observation and assessment of six collaborative behaviors in seven clinical situations important for teamwork, feedback, and reflection...

BACKGROUND: Workplace-based assessment (WPBA) is key to medical education, providing a framework through which the trainee can be assessed and receive feedback in the clinical setting. WPBA was introduced in 2008-2009 to students in year 4 at University College London Medical School (UCLMS). Students raised concerns about the lack of standardisation in grading. As a result, white-space areas were introduced on WPBA forms. The aim of this was to permit assessors to expand their feedback, thereby enhancing its developmental potential...

CONTEXT: Although work-based assessments (WBA) may come closest to assessing habitual performance, their use for summative purposes is not undisputed. Most criticism of WBA stems from approaches to validity consistent with the quantitative psychometric framework. However, there is increasing research evidence that indicates that the assumptions underlying the predictive, deterministic framework of psychometrics may no longer hold. In this discussion paper we argue that meaningfulness and appropriateness of current validity evidence can be called into question and that we need alternative strategies to assessment and validity inquiry that build on current theories of learning and performance in complex and dynamic workplace settings...

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to seek validity evidence for simulation-based assessments (SBA) of paramedics by asking to what extent the measurements obtained in SBA of clinical competence are associated with measurements obtained in actual paramedic contexts, with real patients. METHODS: This prospective observational study involved analyzing the assessment of paramedic trainees at the entry-to-practice level in both simulation- and workplace-based settings...

CONTEXT: Trainee-led workplace-based assessment (WPBA) is increasingly used in postgraduate medical training. Trainees in difficulty are known to behave differently from their peers; these differences may be reflected in their use of WPBAs and may give new insights into the behaviour and assessment of struggling trainees. METHODS: Data were extracted for 76 115 assessments, completed by 1900 UK Foundation Programme (FP) trainees. Of these 1900 trainees, 95 (5%) were FP trainees in difficulty (FTiDs)...