A search for entrustable professional activities for the 1^st year pathology postgraduate trainees

During the past decade, there has been a paradigm shift in medical education from the problem-based learning to competency-based training. This has forced a rethink on the way we evaluate the residents and finally give them the right to handle patients independently. This study makes the first attempt towards designing competency-based training program for pathology residents by formulating the entrustable professional activities (EPAs) for the 1^st year pathology residents.

A questionnaire comprising 18 potential EPAs in histopathology and 12 potential EPAs in cytology were circulated among the residents of Pathology Department. The respondents were asked to grade the EPAs on a scale of 0-4 based on how important they considered that activity as EPA. The cumulative score of each EPA was divided by the number of respondents to arrive at the average score. The EPAs with an average score of 3 or more qualified to be shortlisted as consensus EPAs.

Five activities each of histopathology and cytopathology had an average score of 3 or above and were shortlisted as EPAs for the 1^st year pathology postgraduates. Each of these was also mapped to their respective competencies.

There is an urgent need to restructure the postgraduate pathology curriculum in line with competency-based training. This study is the first step in this direction.