Education Research: Entrustable Professional Activities for General Neurology Advanced Practice Providers: Results of...

Area of Science:

• Neurology
• Medical Education
• Advanced Practice Providers

Background:

• A standardized framework for training and assessing advanced practice providers (APPs) in general neurology is lacking.
• Existing educational strategies do not adequately address the specific needs of APPs transitioning into neurology practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define entrustable professional activities (EPAs) for APPs entering general neurology.
• To gather validity evidence for these EPAs using the EQual rubric.

Main Methods:

• A modified Delphi consensus process involving 30 neurology APP education experts.
• Experts rated the importance of specific activities for new neurology APPs on a 5-point Likert scale.
• Iterative rounds of voting and feedback were used to refine EPA descriptions.

Main Results:

• A consensus was reached on 13 core and 46 nested entrustable professional activities (EPAs) for general neurology APPs.
• All drafted EPA descriptions met predefined quality and structure benchmarks.
• No significant difference in entrustment expectations was found between fellowship program leaders and non-leaders.

Conclusions:

• The developed consensus EPAs can guide curriculum development and assessment for new general neurology APPs.
• These EPAs offer a valuable tool for standardizing the education and evaluation of APPs in neurology.
• The findings support the use of EPAs for ensuring competency in neurology APP practice.