Evaluating professionalism and interpersonal and communication skills: implementing a 360-degree evaluation instrument in an anesthesiology residency program.

Objectives: To implement a 360-degree resident evaluation instrument on the postanesthesia care unit (PACU) rotation and to determine the reliability, feasibility, and validity of this tool for assessing residents' professionalism and interpersonal and communication skills.

Methods: Thirteen areas of evaluation were selected to assess the professionalism and interpersonal and communication skills of residents during their PACU rotation. Each area was measured on a 9-point Likert scale (1, unsatisfactory performance, to 9, outstanding performance). Rating forms were distributed to raters after the completion of the PACU rotation. Raters included PACU nurses, secretarial staff, nurse aides, and medical technicians. Residents were aware of the 360-degree assessment and participated voluntarily. The multiple raters' evaluations were then compared with those of the traditional faculty. Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to measure the reliability of ratings within each category of raters by the Pearson correlation coefficient.

Results: Four hundred twenty-nine rating forms were returned during the study period. Fifteen residents were evaluated. The response rate was 88%. Residents were ranked highest on availability and lowest on management skill. The average rating across all areas was high (8.23). The average mean rating across all items from PACU nurses was higher (8.34) than from secretarial staff (7.99, P > .08). The highest ranked resident ranked high with all raters and the lowest ranked was low with most raters. The intraclass coefficients of correlations were 0.8719, 0.7860, 0.8268, and 0.8575.

Conclusions: This type of resident assessment tool may be useful for PACU rotations. It appears to correlate with traditional faculty ratings, is feasible to use, and provides formative feedback to residents regarding their professionalism and interpersonal and communication skills.