Assessing general practice clinical decision making skills: the key features approach

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Assessment Methods
• Clinical Skills Evaluation

Background:

• The Key Feature Problem (KFP) is an innovative assessment format.
• It focuses on critical steps in clinical decision-making.
• KFP is gaining popularity in high-stakes testing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the design and construction of the KFP examination paper.
• To explain the methodology for setting the pass mark.
• To evaluate the performance of the KFP assessment approach.

Main Methods:

• Detailed description of KFP paper design and construction.
• Explanation of statistical and expert-based methods for pass mark determination.
• Analysis of KFP performance data from high-stakes examinations.

Main Results:

• KFP successfully assesses clinical decision-making skills.
• The format allows for a higher number of problems within a standard examination time.
• KFP has demonstrated effectiveness in settings like the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners Fellowship Examination.

Conclusions:

• The KFP assessment is a viable and effective tool for evaluating clinical decision-making.
• Its design allows for efficient and comprehensive assessment of critical clinical skills.
• KFP's increasing adoption highlights its value in medical education and professional certification.