A Patient-Centered Approach to Developing Entrustable Professional Activities.

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Qualitative Research
• Patient-Centered Care

Background:

• Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) are increasingly adopted for resident assessment in medical education.
• Stakeholder engagement is recommended for EPA development, yet patient input has not been systematically studied.
• This study addresses the gap by exploring patient contributions to designing patient-centered EPAs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the value and nature of patient input in the development of patient-centered Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs).
• To explore how patient experiences and expectations can inform the design of EPAs for clinical tasks.

Main Methods:

• A qualitative study using semistructured interviews with 14 patients experiencing acute low back pain (LBP).
• A focus group with multidisciplinary clinicians was also conducted.
• The Framework Method was employed for data analysis to identify themes and integrate patient and clinician perspectives.

Main Results:

• Patients' firsthand experiences with LBP provided unique expectations of trainees.
• Patient-described desirable and observable trainee behaviors directly informed specific EPA descriptors, particularly for attitudes.
• The integration of patient input led to a patient-centered EPA.

Conclusions:

• Patient input offers valuable, complementary contributions to clinician input in EPA development.
• Developing patient-centered EPAs by consulting patients aligns clinical practice with patient expectations.
• This approach can guide medical educators in creating more patient-centered assessments.