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"Doing well": Intraoperative entrustable professional activity assessments provided limited technical feedback.
Riley Brian1, Natalie Rodriguez1, Connie J Zhou2
1Department of Surgery, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Surgery Open Science
|March 4, 2024
Summary
Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) in surgical education often lack detailed technical feedback. Improving EPA forms and faculty training is crucial for enhancing trainee skill development and assessment.
Area of Science:
- Medical Education
- Surgical Training
- Assessment Methods
Background:
- Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) are used in medical education for assessing essential tasks.
- EPAs have been adopted in surgery to evaluate intraoperative entrustment.
- Faculty assessment burden and the utility of EPAs for formative technical feedback in surgery remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the extent to which narrative comments in Fellowship Council (FC) EPA assessments provide technical feedback.
- To inform surgical residency programs on facilitating technical feedback for trainees.
Main Methods:
- Reviewed narrative comments from 3302 FC EPA assessments (September 2020 - October 2022).
- Two raters assessed comments for inclusion of Objective Structured Assessment of Technical Skills (OSATS) skill areas.
- A third rater reconciled any rating discrepancies.
Main Results:
- Narrative comments addressed a median of two out of seven OSATS skill areas.
- 16.0% of all EPA assessments lacked comments relevant to any OSATS skill areas.
- Limited technical feedback was present in many of the fellowship EPA assessments.
Conclusions:
- Many Fellowship Council EPA assessments provide limited technical feedback related to OSATS.
- Adjusting EPA forms, enhancing faculty development, or using alternative intraoperative assessments may improve feedback.
- Refining assessment tools and training is essential for effective technical skill development in surgical fellows.
