Workplace Based Assessment: Tools to assess competencies in a clinical setting

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Surgical Training
• Clinical Skills Assessment

Background:

• The apprenticeship model is a long-standing method in surgical training.
• It involves observation, supervised practice, and informal feedback from attending surgeons.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the evolution of surgical training models.
• To highlight the shift towards workplace-based assessment in postgraduate surgical education.

Main Methods:

• Review of traditional apprenticeship methods in surgery.
• Analysis of the integration of workplace-based assessment tools.

Main Results:

• Surgical training progresses from observation to supervised skill acquisition.
• Postgraduate programs are adopting formative and summative workplace-based assessments.

Conclusions:

• The apprenticeship model remains foundational but is evolving.
• Workplace-based assessments are becoming integral to evaluating surgical trainee competency.