Does Educational Handover Influence Subsequent Assessment?

Area of Science:

• Medical Education Research
• Assessment and Evaluation in Postgraduate Training

Background:

• Educational handover, sharing learner performance data, is debated due to concerns about assessment bias.
• Proponents suggest handover can personalize learning experiences, while opponents fear self-fulfilling prophecies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of educational handover, specifically reports of minor learner weaknesses, on assessment scores and narrative feedback.
• To determine if providing information about learner weaknesses influences subsequent evaluations by clinical supervisors.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled trial involving 72 clinical supervisors from 5 postgraduate programs.
• Supervisors were assigned to control (no handover), communication weakness handover, or medical expertise weakness handover groups.
• Participants assessed simulated resident-patient encounters using a standardized evaluation form.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were found in overall assessment scores or the percentage of negative comments across groups.
• Supervisors receiving communication weakness reports provided a higher percentage of comments related to communication (63% vs. 50%).
• No significant difference in comments related to medical expertise was observed between the expertise weakness group and the control group.

Conclusions:

• Educational handover can facilitate more targeted feedback in specific areas, such as communication, without negatively impacting assessment scores.
• This study provides preliminary evidence that educational handover may be a useful tool for refining feedback when implemented carefully.
• Further research is needed to explore the effects of handover across different performance levels and weakness types.