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Assessment of community-based training of medical undergraduates: Development and validation of a competency-based
Hemant Deepak Shewade1, Kathiresan Jeyashree2, Selvaraj Kalaiselvi3
1Department of Community Medicine, Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu; Department of Operational Research, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), South-East Asia Office, New Delhi, India.
Background:
The global shift toward competency-based education and assessment is also applicable to community-based training (CBT) of undergraduate medical students. There is a need for a tool to assess competencies related to CBT. This study aimed to develop a tool that uses a competency-based approach to evaluate CBT of medical undergraduates.
Methods:
A preliminary draft of the questionnaire was prepared by the investigators based on a conceptual framework. Using the Delphi technique, this draft was further developed by a specialist panel (n = 8) into a self-administered questionnaire. After pretesting with students, it was administered to medical undergraduates (n = 178) who had recently completed Community Medicine. Item analysis and exploratory factor analysis were performed under which principal component analysis was used. Reliability was assessed by calculating Cronbach's alpha, convergent validity by correlating the scores with Community Medicine university examination scores, and construct validity by describing percentage variance explained by the components.
Results:
A 74-item questionnaire developed after the Delphi technique was further abridged to a 58-item questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha of 74 and 58-item questionnaires were 0.96 and 0.95, respectively; convergent validity was 0.07 and 0.09, respectively; and percentage variance explained by the components were 69.3% and 70.1%, respectively. Agreement between scores of both versions was 0.76.
Discussion:
The authors developed a questionnaire which can be used for competency-based assessment in community-based undergraduate medical education. It is a valuable addition to the existing assessment methods and can guide experts in a need-based design of curriculum and teaching/training methodology.
