Trudie Roberts

CRITERIA FOR GOOD ASSESSMENT: CONSENSUS STATEMENT AND RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE OTTAWA 2010 CONFERENCE

In this article, we outline criteria for good assessment that include: (1) validity or coherence, (2) reproducibility or consistency, (3) equivalence, (4) feasibility, (5) educational effect, (6) catalytic effect, and (7) acceptability. Many of the criteria have been described before and we continue to support their importance here. However, we place particular emphasis on the catalytic effect of the assessment, which is whether the assessment provides results and feedback in a fashion that creates, enhances, and supports education. These criteria do not apply equally well to all situations. Consequently, we discuss how the purpose of the test (summative versus formative) and the perspectives of stakeholders (examinees, patients, teachers-educational institutions, healthcare system, and regulators) influence the importance of the criteria. Finally, we offer a series of practice points as well as next steps that should be taken with the criteria. Specifically, we recommend that the criteria be expanded or modified to take account of: (1) the perspectives of patients and the public, (2) the intimate relationship between assessment, feedback, and continued learning, (3) systems of assessment, and (4) accreditation systems.

Women in medicine − is there a problem? A literature review of the changing gender composition, structures and occupational cultures in medicine

Background  Internationally, there are increasing numbers of women entering medicine. Although all countries have different health care systems and social contexts, all still show horizontal (women concentrated in certain areas of work) and vertical (women under represented at higher levels of the professions) segregation. There is much discussion and competing explanations about the implications of the increasing numbers of women in the medical profession.

Clinical teaching: maintaining an educational role for doctors in the new health care environment

Good clinical teaching is central to medical education but there is concern about maintaining this in contemporary, pressured health care environments. This paper aims to demonstrate that good clinical practice is at the heart of good clinical teaching.

A systematic review of studies assessing and facilitating attitudes towards professionalism in medicine

Objectives  An essential aspect of medical education is to facilitate the development and assessment of appropriate attitudes towards professionalism in medicine. This systematic review provides a summary of evidence for measures that have been used to assess these attitudes and their psychometric rigour. It also describes interventions that have been found to be effective in changing such attitudes.

Strategies and interventions for the involvement of real patients in medical education: a systematic review

Objectives  There is increasing emphasis on encouraging more active involvement of patients in medical education. This is based on the recognition of patients as ‘experts’ in their own medical conditions and may help to enhance student experiences of real‐world medicine. This systematic review provides a summary of evidence for the role and effectiveness of real patient involvement in medical education.

Preparedness is not enough: understanding transitions as critically intensive learning periods

Medical Education 2011: 45: 1006–1015

How to measure the quality of the OSCE: A review of metrics - AMEE guide no. 49

With an increasing use of criterion-based assessment techniques in both undergraduate and postgraduate healthcare programmes, there is a consequent need to ensure the quality and rigour of these assessments. The obvious question for those responsible for delivering assessment is how is this ‘quality’ measured, and what mechanisms might there be that allow improvements in assessment quality over time to be demonstrated? Whilst a small base of literature exists, few papers give more than one or two metrics as measures of quality in Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs). In this guide, aimed at assessment practitioners, the authors aim to review the metrics that are available for measuring quality and indicate how a rounded picture of OSCE assessment quality may be constructed by using a variety of such measures, and also to consider which characteristics of the OSCE are appropriately judged by which measure(s). The authors will discuss the quality issues both at the individual station level and across the complete clinical assessment as a whole, using a series of ‘worked examples’ drawn from OSCE data sets from the authors’ institution.

Learning together: clinical skills teaching for medical and nursing students

Objective  To evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of shared learning of clinical skills for medical and nursing students at the University of Manchester.

Relative effectiveness of high- versus low-fidelity simulation in learning heart sounds

Context  Although there are increasing numbers of studies of outcomes of high‐fidelity patient simulators, few contrast their instruction with that provided by equivalent low‐fidelity, inexpensive simulators. Further, examination of decays in learning and application (transfer) to real patient problems is rare. In this study, we compared the effects of training using a high‐fidelity heart sound simulator (Harvey) and a low‐fidelity simulator (a CD) on recognition of both simulated heart sounds and those in actual patients.

Learning for real life: patient-focused interprofessional workshops offer added value

Objectives  This paper reports relevant findings of a pilot interprofessional education (IPE) project in the Schools of Medicine and Healthcare Studies at the University of Leeds. The purpose of the paper is to make a contribution towards answering 2 questions of fundamental importance to the development of IPE. Is there a demonstrable value to learning together? What types of IPE, under what circumstances, produce what type of outcomes?