A patient-centered approach to developing entrustable professional activities

Carlos El-Haddad, Arvin Damodaran, H. Patrick McNeil, Wendy Hu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

PURPOSE: The medical education community is rapidly accepting the use of entrustable professional activities (EPAs) as a means of assessing residents. Stakeholder engagement is advised in developing EPAs, but no studies have investigated the role of patient input. In this qualitative study, the authors investigated what patient input may add to designing a patient-centered EPA.

METHOD: The authors chose "management of acute low back pain (LBP)" as a common, important clinical task on which to base the patient-centered EPA. In 2015, 14 patients who presented to a teaching hospital with acute LBP participated in semistructured interviews exploring their illness experience and expectations of doctors. Clinicians representing multiple disciplines participated in a focus group. The authors used the Framework Method to analyze data, identifying and developing themes, similarities, and differences between patient and clinician input. They used the findings to develop the EPA. Through an iterative procedure of data review and tracking data sources, they determined how patient and clinician input informed each EPA descriptor.

RESULTS: Drawing from their firsthand experience of LBP, patients described unique expectations of trainees which directly informed EPA descriptors. For example, the authors primarily used patients' detailed descriptions of desirable and observable trainee behaviors to inform the required attitudes descriptor.

CONCLUSIONS: Patients can provide unique contributions, complementary to those of clinicians, to EPAs. Consultations with patients led to the development of a patient-centered EPA, which aligned best clinical practice with patient expectations. Educators seeking to apply patient-centered care to EPA development could adopt a similar approach.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)800-808
Number of pages9
JournalAcademic Medicine
Volume92
Issue number6
Early online date21 Feb 2017
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2017

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A patient-centered approach to developing entrustable professional activities'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this