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A reliable and valid instrument to assess competency in basic surgical skills in second-year medical students
Rachel Bramson1, Mark Sadoski, Charles W Sanders
1Department of Family and Community Medicine, Texas A&M University System Health Science Center, College of Medicine, College Station, TX 77843, USA. bramson@medicine.tamhsc.edu
Background:
Despite calls for competency based education, a dearth of validated instruments for measuring basic skills currently exists. We developed an instrument to assess competency in basic surgical skills in second-year medical students and tested it for psychometric reliability and validity.
Methods:
From a review of the literature, an instrument comprised of numerically scaled items was constructed. After initial tests, several items were divided to produce a final instrument more specific and more appropriate for providing feedback to students. The final instrument was empirically tested for reliability and validity.
Results:
The final 10-item instrument is presented here along with all of the empirical evidence including internal consistency reliability and interrater reliability, and content, criterion-related, and construct validity. Overall alpha reliability was 0.84 and interrater reliability was r = 0.83, P < 0.01 for the total scores. Factor analysis provided evidence of construct validity.
Conclusions:
The instrument has psychometric properties adequate for use as one criterion for summative evaluation and is educationally practical enough to provide focused and detailed feedback for student improvement.
