Development of entrustable professional activities for competency-based prosthodontic specialty training programmes

Area of Science:

• Dental Education
• Prosthodontics
• Competency-Based Education

Background:

• Developing standardized assessment tools is crucial for specialty training.
• Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) offer a framework for defining and assessing clinical competencies.
• Prosthodontics training requires a clear definition of essential professional activities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a set of Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) for prosthodontics specialty training.
• To establish a consensus-based set of EPAs reflecting core tasks of specialist prosthodontists.
• To lay the groundwork for a structured assessment system in prosthodontics education.

Main Methods:

• A multi-step approach including literature review, expert consultation, and a nominal group technique.
• Evaluation of EPAs using the Equal rubric for quality and structure.
• A two-round modified Delphi method with international prosthodontics educators for consensus building.

Main Results:

• 11 essential EPAs were confirmed from an initial list of 20.
• All confirmed EPAs represent core activities crucial for specialist prosthodontists.
• A high degree of expert consensus was achieved, with 8 EPAs requiring revision based on ratings and content validity index.

Conclusions:

• 11 EPAs were successfully developed for prosthodontics specialty training.
• This set of EPAs is a foundational step towards a structured assessment system.
• The study advances competency-based specialty training in prosthodontics.