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Abstract
This Guide was written to support educators interested in building a competency-based workplace curriculum. It aims to provide an up-to-date overview of the literature on Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs), supplemented with suggestions for practical application to curriculum construction, assessment and educational technology.
The Guide first introduces concepts and definitions related to EPAs and then guidance for their identification, elaboration and validation, while clarifying common misunderstandings about EPAs. A matrix-mapping approach of combining EPAs with competencies is discussed, and related to existing concepts such as competency milestones. A specific section is devoted to entrustment decision-making as an inextricable part of working with EPAs. In using EPAs, assessment in the workplace is translated to entrustment decision-making for designated levels of permitted autonomy, ranging from acting under full supervision to providing supervision to a junior learner. A final section is devoted to the use of technology, including mobile devices and electronic portfolios to support feedback to trainees about their progress and to support entrustment decision-making by programme directors or clinical teams.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to express their gratitude to the following persons for commenting on previous version of this paper or supporting the development of the paper. Christy Boscardin PhD, Sjoukje van den Broek MD, Robert Englander MD, Trevor Gibbs, MD, Anouk van der Gijp MD, Ylva Holtzhausen MA, Gersten Jonker MD, Asja Maaz MA, Mira Mandoki DVM, Hanneke Mulder PhD, Patricia O’Sullivan ED, Sophie Querido MA and Nienke Wisman-Zwarter MD.
This publication was initially written as part of a multi-institutional, multi-country, and multi-professional project Workplace-based e-Assessment Technology for Competency-based Higher Multi-professional Education (WATCHME) that has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration, under grant agreement 619349.
Declaration of interest: The authors report that they have no conflicts of interest.