The Pediatric Examination Assessment Rubric (PEAR) toolkit: reliability study.

Area of Science:

• Ophthalmology
• Medical Education
• Assessment Tools

Background:

• The Pediatric Examination Assessment Rubric (PEAR) toolkit was developed to evaluate ophthalmology residents' skills in pediatric eye examinations.
• Assessing the reliability of educational assessment tools is crucial for ensuring accurate performance evaluation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the inter-rater reliability of the PEAR toolkit in assessing ophthalmology residents' performance on pediatric eye examinations.

Main Methods:

• Six ophthalmology residents participated in 11 video-recorded pediatric patient encounters.
• Two pediatric ophthalmologists used the PEAR toolkit to evaluate resident performance on 12 examination skills.
• Inter-rater reliability was assessed using kappa statistics and categorized based on established guidelines.

Main Results:

• The PEAR toolkit demonstrated moderate to almost perfect reliability for 9 out of 12 assessed pediatric eye examination skills.
• Two skills, Worth 4-Dot and alignment, showed fair reliability.
• Reliability for stereoacuity could not be determined due to limited score variability.

Conclusions:

• The PEAR toolkit exhibits acceptable inter-rater reliability for evaluating ophthalmology residents' pediatric eye examination skills.
• The toolkit shows promise as a reliable instrument for performance assessment in pediatric ophthalmology training.