A patient expectations questionnaire for determining criteria for entrustment decisions

Abstract

Introduction

To train health professionals for patient-centered care, patient engagement in medical curriculum development and assessment is widely recommended. But there are few published methods on how to consult with patients effectively, particularly when creating entrustable professional activities (EPAs). In this mixed-method study, we developed a questionnaire for facilitating patient input when developing EPA assessment criteria.

Methods

We developed a questionnaire for documenting patient expectations of their doctors which included: patient interviews to identify questionnaire items, expert validation, cognitive interviews with respondents, and finally, pilot testing. For the pilot testing, 87 participants with a variety of health problems from medical/surgical wards and outpatient clinics at a tertiary hospital were recruited. The final questionnaire included open-ended and ranking-style questions.

Results

Using the questionnaire, patients could identify their key expectations of their doctors when managing their current medical problem. Most patients wrote clear, brief free-text responses directly applicable to EPA descriptors that were time-efficient to analyze.

Conclusions

The questionnaire is a feasible method of recording patient expectations, enabling educators to consult with and include patient perspectives when developing criteria for entrustment decisions in a diverse range of clinical contexts.

Keywords:

• Medical education research
• community-oriented
• clinical

Ethical approval

The South Western Sydney Local Health District Human Research Ethics Committee (Local Project Number HE18/041) approved this research.

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the interview and survey participants for sharing their experiences.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.

Glossary

Patient-centered entrustable professional activity (EPA): An EPA which was developed using patient input, and ultimately focused on teaching and delivering patient-centered care.

El-Haddad C, Damodaran A, McNeil HP, Hu W. 2017. A Patient-Centered Approach to Developing Entrustable Professional Activities. Academic medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges. eng.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carlos El-Haddad

Carlos El-Haddad, MBBS, FRACP, is a PhD candidate in the School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, and staff specialist rheumatologist in the Department of Rheumatology, Liverpool Hospital, Sydney, Australia.

Iman Hegazi

Iman Hegazi, MD, PhD, is Director of the Medical Education Unit, at Western Sydney University. She has expertise in quantitative and mixed methods research, and her areas of research interests include professional development of medical students, curricular design and pedagogy.

Wendy Hu

Wendy Hu, MBBS, PhD, FRACGP, is Associate Dean (Learning and Innovation) and Professor of Medical Education. Wendy is a family physician with special interests in child health. Her research interests include social inclusion in education and health care, participatory action research using qualitative and mixed methods.