Presentation Description
Prashant Jhala1
Arvin Damodaran2,3, Adrienne Torda2, Toby Wilcox4, Ben Taylor2, Tayla Douglas4, Boaz Shulruf4 and Annette Katelaris2
1 School of Health Sciences, UNSW Sydney
2 School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Sydney
3 Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick Campus
4 Office of Medical Education, UNSW Sydney
Arvin Damodaran2,3, Adrienne Torda2, Toby Wilcox4, Ben Taylor2, Tayla Douglas4, Boaz Shulruf4 and Annette Katelaris2
1 School of Health Sciences, UNSW Sydney
2 School of Clinical Medicine, UNSW Sydney
3 Prince of Wales Hospital, Randwick Campus
4 Office of Medical Education, UNSW Sydney
Background:
Since the inception of entrustable professional activities (EPAs), several entrustment scales have been introduced to medicine, pharmacy, dietetics and physiotherapy. However, the language of entrustment can cause some confusion, particularly interpreting the subcategories of supervision required. Levels of entrustment may not clearly differentiate between the graded responsibility afforded to the student. No uniform scale has been proposed that is useful for multiple entry-level disciplines. This paper presents an inter-professional entrustment scale, to be used for the entire degree, that articulates the level of responsibility appropriate to the student’s skill level.
Since the inception of entrustable professional activities (EPAs), several entrustment scales have been introduced to medicine, pharmacy, dietetics and physiotherapy. However, the language of entrustment can cause some confusion, particularly interpreting the subcategories of supervision required. Levels of entrustment may not clearly differentiate between the graded responsibility afforded to the student. No uniform scale has been proposed that is useful for multiple entry-level disciplines. This paper presents an inter-professional entrustment scale, to be used for the entire degree, that articulates the level of responsibility appropriate to the student’s skill level.
Methods:
Literature reviews were conducted by a small working group to inform the development and implementation of EPAs into existing programs in medicine, optometry, and exercise physiology, and new programs in pharmacy, dietetics, and physiotherapy. This informed a working group of experienced academics, senior clinicians, educationalists and recent graduates from medicine and physiotherapy developed a new scale of entrustment, through several rounds of discussion, refinement and consensus.
Results:
The new entrustment scale consists of seven levels across three key phases of curriculum namely, foundational knowledge and skill development, work integrated learning and clinical practice. Each stage of the scale was mapped to an extended Miller’s Pyramid (ten Cate et al., 2021) to enable an understanding of the student’s progression throughout a curriculum. New descriptors were proposed, attempting to provide clarity and a shared language that could be understood by academics, students and supervising clinicians.
Conclusions:
We propose a scale that can be applied inter-professionally to entry-level health professional education. Future research will focus on the development of common EPAs that can be evaluated using this common scale.
Take home messages:
- Entrustment scales should create clear and shared meaning across professions.
- A common interprofessional entrustment scale may facilitate the use of EPAs in the
- assessment of interprofessional education.
References (maximum three)
Ten Cate, O., Carraccio, C., Damodaran, A., Gofton, W., Hamstra, S.J., Hart, D.E., Richardson, D., Ross, S., Schultz, K., Warm, E.J. and Whelan, A.J., 2021. Entrustment decision making: extending Miller’s pyramid. Academic Medicine, 96(2), pp.199-204.