Developing an Instrument to Evaluate Undergraduate Healthcare Students' Professionalism.

Professionalism is a multidimensional quality acquired over time. Undergraduate years lay a foundation for the development of professionalism. Tools monitoring the students' professional development are needed.

An overview of and approach to selecting appropriate patient representations in teaching and summative assessment in medical education.

Medical education has a long tradition of using various patient representations in teaching and assessment. With this literature review we aim, first, to provide an overview of the most important patient representations used to teach and assess clinical skills, considering in particular “summative exams” that have a pass or fail outcome; second, to provide arguments for choosing certain patient representations; and third, to show the advantages and limitations of different patient representations, especially simulated patients (SPs) and real patients (RPs). Typical patient representations include case narratives, anatomical models, simulators and mannequins, as well as SPs and RPs.

Completing the picture on student performances in OSCEs: A mixed-methods study on integration of a standardized patient rating.

Objective: Good physician communication skills increase patient satisfaction and improve healing processes. Although physicians and patients appear to value communicative competencies differently, students are often evaluated solely by physicians. This study examines whether additional assessment of students by 'standardized patients' (SPs) is useful.

Measurement precision at the cut score in medical multiple choice exams: Theory matters.

Introduction: In high-stakes assessment, the measurement precision of pass-fail decisions is of great importance. A concept for analyzing the measurement precision at the cut score is conditional reliability, which describes measurement precision for every score achieved in an exam. We compared conditional reliabilities in Classical Test Theory (CTT) and Item Response Theory (IRT) with a special focus on the cut score and potential factors influencing conditional reliability at the cut score.

Influences on the implementation of Mini-CEX and DOPS for postgraduate medical trainees' learning: A grounded theory study.

In order for Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) and Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS) to actually have a positive effect on trainees' learning, the way in which the tools are implemented is of key importance. However, there are many factors influencing their implementation. In this study, we aim to develop a comprehensive model of such factors.

The educational impact of Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) and Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS) and its association with implementation: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Introduction: Mini Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) and Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS) are used as formative assessments worldwide. Since an up-to-date comprehensive synthesis of the educational impact of Mini-CEX and DOPS is lacking, we performed a systematic review. Moreover, as the educational impact might be influenced by characteristics of the setting in which Mini-CEX and DOPS take place or their implementation status, we additionally investigated these potential influences.

Multiple true-false items: a comparison of scoring algorithms.

Multiple true-false (MTF) items are a widely used supplement to the commonly used single-best answer (Type A) multiple choice format. However, an optimal scoring algorithm for MTF items has not yet been established, as existing studies yielded conflicting results. Therefore, this study analyzes two questions: What is the optimal scoring algorithm for MTF items regarding reliability, difficulty index and item discrimination? How do the psychometric characteristics of different scoring algorithms compare to those of Type A questions used in the same exams? We used data from 37 medical exams conducted in 2015 (998 MTF and 2163 Type A items overall).

Factors influencing the educational impact of Mini-CEX and DOPS: A qualitative synthesis.

Introduction: The educational impact of Mini-CEX and DOPS varies greatly and can be influenced by several factors. However, there is no comprehensive analysis and synthesis of the described influencing factors.

Methods: To fill this gap, we chose a two-step approach.