Validity and Reliability of a Tool to Assess Quality Improvement Knowledge and Skills in Pediatrics Residents

Residency programs are expected to educate residents in quality improvement (QI). Effective assessments are needed to ensure residents gain QI knowledge and skills. Limitations of current tools include poor interrater reliability and requirement for scorer training.

To provide evidence for the validity of the Assessment of Quality Improvement Knowledge and Skills (AQIKS), which is a new tool that provides a summative assessment of pediatrics residents' ability to recall QI concepts and apply them to a clinical scenario.

We conducted a quasi-experimental study to measure the AQIKS performance in 2 groups of pediatrics residents: postgraduate year (PGY) 2 residents who participated in a 1-year longitudinal QI curriculum, and a concurrent control group of PGY-1 residents who received no formal QI training. The curriculum included 20 hours of didactics and participation in a resident-led QI project. Three faculty members with clinical QI experience, who were not involved in the curriculum and received no additional training, scored the AQIKS.

Complete data were obtained for 30 of 37 residents (81%) in the intervention group, and 36 of 40 residents (90%) in the control group. After completing a QI curriculum, the intervention group's mean score was 40% higher than at baseline (P < .001), while the control group showed no improvement (P = .29). Interrater reliability was substantial (κ = 0.74).

The AQIKS detects an increase in QI knowledge and skills among pediatrics residents who participated in a QI curriculum, with better interrater reliability than currently available assessment tools.