The importance of faculty development in implementing assessments aligned with EPAs S. Stern, K. Miller, J. Wold, K. Anderson, T. Glasgow, G. Zinkhan, D. Roussel, S. Lamb, J. Colbert-Getz, University of Utah School of Medicine Abstract Body: Context A critical aspect to ensure that medical students achieve milestones in a competency-based framework is developing faculty members’ understanding of the Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs). However, it is unknown how much faculty development is needed before faculty can be entrusted to accurately assess medical students. In 2013 the University of Utah School of Medicine implemented a two-year clinical method curriculum (CMC) using the EPA framework to develop goals and assessments. Learning communities of 10 students/faculty member are used to deliver the curriculum to each cohort of 100-120 students. Objectives 1. To describe faculty development for learning community faculty who rate medical students on assessments aligned with EPAs. 2. To identify barriers, as reported by learning community faculty, in faculty development relating to EPAs Key Message Learning community faculty received the following EPA faculty development: Two brief presentations of EPAs by CMC course directors in lecture with students and faculty present; presentation and discussion of EPAs at the annual faculty retreat; annual “just-in-time” instruction prior to completing EPA progress forms for students; and post-hoc faculty development discussions after completing EPA progress forms. Barriers to EPA faculty development reported by core faculty members were: variability of faculty knowledge about how EPAs are used and assessed in other aspects of medical training (i.e. GME specific EPAs); the length of the EPA-based assessments and applicability to student level of training; and the level of detail associated with each EPA that faculty are expected to assess. Conclusion Little research exists on the amount and type of faculty development necessary for rating students using assessments developed with the EPA framework. Next steps are to survey learning community faculty on their post training knowledge of EPAs and their confidence in assessing students, and to evaluate the quality of feedback provided to students through the EPA-based assessments.
