An Alternative Certification Examination (%26quot;ACE%26quot;) in Surgery

作者：Morris Marie Catherine^*; Gillis Amy E; Smoothey Craig O; Hennessy Martina; Conlon Kevin C; Ridgway Paul F

来源：Journal of Surgical Education, 2014, 71(6): 779-789.

DOI：10.1016/j.jsurg.2014.05.011

• assessment
• surgery
• patient safety
• competence

BACKGROUND: Medical graduates are required to be competent in many domains of professional practice when joining the health care workforce. Current undergraduate examination methods robustly assess up to 5 of these 8 required skills. This study sought to evaluate an alternative certification examination (%26quot;ACE%26quot;) in assessing all of the 8 required domains in surgical cases. %26lt;br%26gt;METHODS: A total of 143 final-year medical students were invited to participate in an %26quot;ACE%26quot; in February 2013. In total, 137 students, 95.8% of the class, agreed to participate. The %26quot;ACE%26quot; format consisted of 4 sequential patient encounters observed by 2 independent examiners. It assessed all the 8 required domains of professional practice. The examiners and the students evaluated this examination format using a Likert scale and free-text comments. %26lt;br%26gt;RESULTS: The %26quot;ACE%26quot; assessed all the 8 domains. The inclusion of a patient safety measure to avoid an egregious error in the pass criteria resulted in 27 (18.9%) students failing to meet them. The correlation of grades between the independent examiners in the %26quot;ACE%26quot; was strong at a Cronbach alpha of 0.907 (CI: 0.766-1). The %26quot;ACE%26quot; format was reported as an acceptable examination methodology by the examiners for formative or summative assessment of surgical cases at the end of a primary medical degree. %26lt;br%26gt;CONCLUSION: The %26quot;ACE%26quot; format is standardized, is integrative, and has excellent interrater reliability. Inclusion of a patient safety measure as pass criteria appears to increase specificity. The %26quot;ACE%26quot; shows potential as an alternative examination to the traditional long case examination and objective structured clinical examination in assessing all the 8 domains of professional practice.

• 出版日期2014-12