Workplace-based assessments: common pitfalls and mitigating strategies

In recent years, workplace-based assessments (WPBAs) have become a regular staple in postgraduate medical training thanks to their realism, practicality and ability to interrogate trainees' competency levels at the highest level of Miller's pyramid. As trainees at different stages of postgraduate subspecialty residency training, we identified several significant pitfalls encountered in the context of WPBAs based on our experiences and educational literature and sought to provide mitigating strategies to optimise these assessments for improved fidelity and efficacy. In this article, the pitfalls discussed include assessor bias, variability ('noise') in professional judgements and relational considerations that may cloud assessment fidelity. These are issues that can be addressed through multi-pronged strategies centred on assessor training, clinical preceptor role delineation, appropriate formatting and conduct of assessments, retrospective audits for quality control and enhancing narrative feedback in competency assessments.