Delphi Study to Evaluate Competency Comprehensive Assessment System for Professional Degree of Dentistry

In accordance with the two-way integration requirements of Chinese professional degree training and resident standardization training, we have gradually established a competency comprehensive assessment system (CAS) for professional postgraduate education since 2015. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the scientific and practicality of CAS through a Delphi study.

There were two parts in CAS such as dissertation of clinical study and oral clinical proficiency assessment, which including formative assessment and summative assessment. A Delphi questionnaire was scheduled to assess the acceptance about two parts of CAS. Through two rounds of questioning, forty experts were invited to score for each item according to Likert-scale. The scores were analyzed and comments were conducted.

The questionnaire responses rate of two rounds were 85% and 97.1%, respectively. The reliability of the results was high with Cronbach's alpha more than 0.8 and the McDonald's omega coefficients more than 0.7. Moreover, most indicators were obtained agreement with high importance mean scores and full-score rates according to the first round. However, the scores of two indicators such as clinical chairside skill examination and patients' satisfaction were relatively low. After second round, the chairside skill examination was suggested being organized after trainees' application, or conducted by the department. The recommended evaluation methods for patients' satisfaction were telephone follow-up by hospital randomly, patients' scores to student immediately, or evaluation by teachers.

The CAS integrating research assessment with clinical assessment to evaluate the clinical competency of dental students was acceptable. Most content were highly agreed by experts, indicating the possibility of further promotion.