Assessment in community settings: Is there any role for individual competency-based assessment?

Background: Oral forms of assessment remain a common part of competency-based assessment systems, yet their feasibility is being challenged. The focus on individual competence is problematic given the need to prepare health professionals for teamwork. The present study aimed to investigate how the assessment of collective competence compares to individual assessment, and to explore whether there is a need for individual assessment at all in community or population-based practice.

Methods: A behavioural-based interview assessment was developed and trialled and correlated to performance as a team on placement. Correlation between student performance on individual behavioural-based interview and teamwork artefacts was assessed using Spearman rho. Differences between performance on individual oral assessment and team performance on artefacts at the cohort level was determined using the Mann-Whitney U-test. Bland-Altman analysis was completed to analyse agreement between performance on the individual oral assessment and team performance at the student level.

Results: Students were final year nutrition and dietetics students from 2020, 2021 and 2022 years (total sample = 216) from one Australian university. There was a difference in performance between assessment types in each year and as a total cohort (p < 0.001) with students performing better in teamwork. There was no correlation between individual oral interview and team performance across all years. The results of the Bland-Altman analysis showed little agreement between the two assessment tasks.

Conclusions: Assessment of teamwork performance as part of a program of assessment is essential. More valid and reliable tools are needed to assess collective competence.