Assess trainees in the clinical workplace using the Mini-CEX (mini clinical evaluation exercise)

The Competency-based Evaluation of Educational Crew of Dental Faculty’s Obstacles in Institutionalizing Performance Assessments

Aims:

This study evaluates the educational crew of dental faculty’s lived experiences facing obstacles and requirements in institutionalizing performance assessments to implement a professional competency-based evaluation system.

Background:

The competency-based evaluation of learning and teaching processes has been adopted as a key policy in the developed world, which indicates the achievement rate of educational goals and the quality of education.

Objective:

The main objective of this study was to evaluate obstacles in institutionalizing performance assessments for the educational crew.

Methods:

This qualitative study used a semi-structured interview in a focus group discussion. The experience of the educational crew regarding the obstacles of using performance assessments and their approaches to conducting a professional competency-based evaluation was assessed. The recruited participants were educational supervisors, professors of orthodontics and prosthodontics, and the medical education department and evaluation committee members of the faculty of dentistry at the University of Tabriz. The purposive sampling technique was used and continued until reaching saturation. Five focus group discussions were conducted with fourteen educational crew and three medical education department members. The data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results:

The interview analysis results yielded 450 codes in three general categories, including “current condition of clinical education,” “obstacles of implementing new evaluation methods,” and “requirements for effective evaluation of clinical skills.” According to the results, changes in evaluation methods are necessary to respond to community needs. There are also many cultural problems with applying western models in developing countries.

Conclusion:

The medical community should be directed towards a competency-based curriculum, especially in procedure-based fields, such as dentistry.

Other:

They are moving towards altering traditional evaluation methods (the traditional classroom-based lectures). This paradigm change requires support from the department and the provision of infrastructure.

Athletic training approved clinical instructors' reports of real-time opportunities for evaluating clinical proficiencies

CONTEXT

Appropriate methods for evaluating clinical proficiencies are essential to ensuring entry-level competence in athletic training.

OBJECTIVE

To identify the methods Approved Clinical Instructors (ACIs) use to evaluate student performance of clinical proficiencies.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional design.

SETTING

Public and private institutions in National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) District 4.

PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS

Approved Clinical Instructors from accredited athletic training education programs in the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers' Association, which is NATA District 4 (N = 135).

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Participants completed a previously validated survey instrument, Methods of Clinical Proficiency Evaluation in Athletic Training, that consisted of 15 items, including demographic characteristics of the respondents and Likert-scale items (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree) regarding methods of clinical proficiency evaluation, barriers, educational content areas, and clinical experience settings. We used analyses of variance and 2-tailed, independent-samples t tests to assess differences among ACI demographic characteristics and the methods, barriers, educational content areas, settings, and opportunities for feedback regarding clinical proficiency evaluation. Qualitative analysis of respondents' comments was completed.

RESULTS

The ACIs (n = 106 of 133 respondents, 79.7%) most often used simulations to evaluate clinical proficiencies. Only 59 (55.1%) of the 107 ACIs responding to a follow-up question reported that they feel students engage in a sufficient number of real-time evaluations to prepare them for entry-level practice. An independent-samples t test revealed that no particular clinical experience setting provided more opportunities than another for real-time evaluations (t(119) range, -0.909 to 1.796, P > or = .05). The occurrence of injuries not coinciding with the clinical proficiency evaluation timetable (4.00 + or - 0.832) was a barrier to real-time evaluations. Respondents' comments indicated much interest in opportunities and barriers regarding real-time clinical proficiency evaluations.

CONCLUSIONS

Most clinical proficiencies are evaluated via simulations. The ACIs should maximize real-time situations to evaluate students' clinical proficiencies whenever feasible. Athletic training education program administrators should develop alternative methods of clinical proficiency evaluations.