Clinical competence assessment: development of a mobile app to enhance patient centerderness

Abstract

Purpose The current emphasis within education is on collaboration, data-driven decision-making, and assessment driven accountability. Medical education is now being oriented to guarantee patient-centered care. Having appropriate data from student outcomes is crucial for decision making on both educational and health care institutions. This paper describes the development of a mobile app to assess the clinical competencies of medical students for timely and quality feedback. Design The app development included 4 phases. The conceptual model was designed on collaborative and multidisciplinary focus groups with clinicians, information technology professionals, hospital directors, and change managers. The prototype was an app with functional and friendly features to assess students with Patient-Centered Learning perspectives. Innovative features included student profiles, multiple examiners, customizable instruments, and data reports. The pilot started with faculty training and monitoring by information technology professionals. For a broader implementation, detailed rubrics were applied to assess the clinical competencies on bedside (ambulatory care, surgical procedures and emergency skills) and non-bedside learning moments (case discussions and rounds). Findings Non-bedside learning moments had the highest frequency (55.3 vs 28.8 per cent) of the records. Case discussions represented 40.7 per cent of assessments while rounds accounted for 14.6 per cent. In contrast, regarding the bedside learning moments, the emergency department had the lowest figures (3.5 per cent). It seems that faculty prefers to grade students on academic activities rather than complex student patient encounters. Originality Obtaining multiple results from real-time feedback promoted awareness of patient centeredness on medical students. Both the medical school and the hospital now have accountable information for decision making.