Development of a dynamic clinical assessment for finals

Area of Science:

• Dental Education
• Clinical Assessment

Background:

• Traditional dental school final assessments, such as objective structured clinical examinations and long cases, have limitations in evaluating essential graduate attributes.
• There is a need to develop new assessment methods that capture professional qualities crucial for newly qualified dentists.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and report on a dynamic assessment method for dental graduates.
• To evaluate key graduate attributes including communication, responsiveness, and complex case management.

Main Methods:

• Implemented a dynamic assessment incorporating candidate interaction with diverse stakeholders.
• Introduced multiple scenarios with evolving clinical situations, long-term follow-up, treatment complications, and challenging communications.
• Developed a cross-cutting rubric to assess information gathering/giving, communication, clinical reasoning, applied knowledge, management, and professionalism.

Main Results:

• The dynamic assessment effectively simulates real-world dental practice challenges.
• Candidates demonstrated a range of skills including communication, problem-solving, and professionalism in varied scenarios.
• The assessment rubric provided a comprehensive evaluation of applied clinical knowledge and professional attributes.

Conclusions:

• Dynamic assessments offer a more comprehensive evaluation of dental graduates' readiness for practice compared to traditional methods.
• This approach better captures essential skills like communication and adaptability, crucial for modern dental professionals.
• The developed assessment framework can inform future dental education and evaluation strategies.