Continuous Workplace-based Assessment as an Indication of Clinical Competence in Paediatric Dentistry

Abstract

An authentic workplace setting provides the ideal opportunity for assessmentof students’ clinical competence at the ‘does’ level of performance.Final-year dental students in the Department of Paediatric Dentistry at theUniversity of the Western Cape are evaluated in the clinical environmenton a daily basis through multiple clinical evaluations which assess clinicaland diagnostic skills over a year. An additional end-of-module clinicalassessment in the form of a single-blinded patient case (BPC) determines ifstudents have reached the expected level of clinical competence in terms ofpatient evaluation and diagnosis. However, the reliability and feasibility ofthis single end-of-module clinical case have been questioned in this setting.This study aimed to determine if the current continuous workplace-basedassessment (WPBA) results could be used as an indication of final-yearstudents’ clinical competence at the end of the module. A retrospective,quantitative, cross-sectional study was conducted of all complete assessmentrecords. The correlation between the continuous WPBA components wasanalysed together with an evaluation of the reliability and validity of theassessment results. The continuous formative WPBA practices were foundto be both valid and reliable when using Kane’s (2013) and Royal’s (2017)frameworks for analysis. However, the BPC should be reconsidered due tofeasibility and reliability concerns. Key words: Dental education, Paediatric Dentistry, clinical skills, workplace,summative, formative, continuous assessment