Practical Guide to the Evaluation of Clinical Competence, 2nd Edition

By Eric S. Holmboe & Steven James Durning & Richard E. Hawkins

ISBN: 9780323447348

Pub Date: 5/4/2017

Reviewed by: Klara K Papp, PhD (Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine)

Description

This is a comprehensive practical guide to the assessment of competence of health professionals across the continuum of medical education and practice. The authors affirm the importance of using high-quality assessment methods and systems for the good of society in order to fulfill a primary obligation to the public and patients. The first edition was published close to a decade ago.

Purpose

The primary purpose is to provide a practical guide to developing assessment programs using a systems lens. Assessment of clinical competence is complex and multiple methods are needed. The authors organized the book around various assessment methods and instruments, and individuals with responsibilities for assessment are invited to apply these methods and instruments to their own settings. The authors’ objectives are achieved well. The book describes practical methods to assess competence and cites extensive educational literature that provides evidence for the use of these methods.

Audience

The audience is those who have a role in the education of health professionals. Assessment is one step in the curriculum design process and an integral part of it [1]. The book is essential reading for medical educators involved in any phase of curriculum design and implementation. As stated by authors, “the curriculum guides what faculty teach and the assessments guide what trainees learn: ‘the assessment tail wags the curriculum dog’.” The authors are recognized experts and thought leaders in the field of assessment.

Features

The book includes a comprehensive and practical guide to the issues and methods to consider in designing an outcomes-based assessment system for any of the health professions (although the book cites literature primarily from medical education).

Assessment

The book provides a state-of-the-art guide to competency-based outcomes assessment programs in the health professions. If followed, this guide will help any medical educator in the health professions identify better ways to implement assessment methods and measurement tools. What is also important about this book is that it provides conceptual models and popular approaches to assessment. The authors are practitioners who themselves have clearly struggled with improving and implementing effective measures of performance in the health professions and offer the best evidence from the literature as well as from their experience, resulting in this authoritative, excellent, practical guide to a compendium of assessment methods. A little handy toolbox was published almost two decades ago that described assessment methods that could be used for evaluating resident physicians as part of the ACGME Outcomes Project [2]. It included a brief description of each method, information pertaining to its use, psychometric qualities, and feasibility/practicality. Since that time, the literature has expanded exponentially (if not exploded) and the view of developing assessment programs using a systems lens across the continuum of health professions education has transformed the design and implementation of assessment systems in important ways. This is an essential resource in the library of every school and residency program intent on improving its assessment system. Those interested in a book that is more conceptual and provides an overview of the pros and cons of competency-based education, its origins, and development, would do well to consider also reading Brian Hodges’s book on this topic [3].

Doody’s Review Service Weighted Numerical Score: 93 – 4 Stars!

[1] Thomas PA, Kern DE, Hughes MT, Chen BY. Curriculum Development for Medical Education: A Six-Step Approach. 3rd Ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, [2016].

[2] Toolbox of Assessment Methods. ACGME and ABMS. A product of the joint initiative of the ACGME Outcome Project of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), and the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). Version 1.1, September 2000.

[3] Hodges BD, Lingard L. Ed. The Question of Competence: Reconsidering Medical Education in the 21st Century. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press. 2012.