Submission ID 78158
| Code | OC-1-1 |
|---|---|
| At the end of this workshop, participants will be able to: | |
| Category | Medical Education |
| Type | Oral |
| Will the presenter be a: | Early Career Faculty - (Less than 7 years of practice) |
| Title | Under the Microscope: Magnifying the Growing Pains of Epas in Internal Medicine |
| Background/Purpose | Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) were designed to facilitate workplace supervision and coaching via the frequent assessment of residents' enactment of observable and measurable patient care activities. EPA-based assessments became ubiquitous to competency-based medical education (CBME), yet anecdotal evidence suggests that practical implementation and engagement are fraught with growing pains. The purpose of this study was to explore how internal medicine (IM) residents perceive the learning value of EPA-based assessments in their training. |
| Methods | Using constructivist grounded theory, 11 IM residents from 3 institutions participated in semi-structured interviews. Themes were generated using constant comparative analysis. |
| Results | Participants recognized both that EPAs are meant to drive professional growth and that the learner-centered orientation of CBME confers responsibility for EPA completion on residents. However, despite learners' considerable efforts, systemic inefficiencies and impracticalities obliged residents to either engage in workarounds or risk receiving communications perceived as threatening from their programs. Learning-benefit thus diluted by stress, disengagement-and in some case-disdain, in a process perceived as onerous and not overly useful for either enhancing performance or addressing learning gaps. |
| Discussion | While new educational concepts, such as EPAs, necessitate time and effort to be effective, unaddressed systemic pitfalls appear to both hinder residents' learning experiences and threaten their wellbeing. Immediate action is needed as leaving the onus on learners may be backfiring leading to potentially inaccurate assumptions of competence. Learner centeredness is aspirational, but risks failing in practice. We must ask ourselves: are we losing the intended focus of EPAs? |
| Keyword 1 | Assessment |
| Keyword 2 | Entrustable Professional Activity |
| Keyword 3 | Constructivist Grounded Theory |
| Abstract content most relevant to: (check all that apply) | Residency Education |
| Abstract Track - First Choice | Assessment |
| Assessment | Entrustable Professional Activities |
| Authors | Roy Khalife Roy Khalife Januvi Jegatheswaran Kori LaDonna Samantha Halman |
