The ABP Foundation supported projects through the years that led to the initial development of pediatrics milestones and entrustable professional activities (EPAs) as tools for competency-based medical education. The foundation continues to support this work as the EPAs evolve and their efficacy is demonstrated.
Foundation-sponsored research has shown the utility and validity of these approaches, and evidence to support their value in the workplace continues to grow. Many papers about milestones and EPAs have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Below are some of the findings.
- Evidence exists for the validity of the EPA supervision scales as effective assessment tools.
- Narrative performance levels for EPAs vary at the time of graduation.
- Increasing the number of people assessing a trainee provides more thorough and specific feedback on a resident’s knowledge and skills.
- Participants find assessment tools easy to use, with completion times ranging from four to 10 minutes.
- Assessment reports to trainees provide them with insight into competency-specific performance and areas for improvement.
- Assessment reports provide program directors and clinical competency committees with data to support decisions about readiness of trainees to advance.
With the increasing recognition of the importance of these approaches has come an increase in the number of residency and fellowship programs that are testing and implementing the use of EPAs for trainee assessment and feedback.
Currently, the Foundation supports several projects in conjunction with the APPD Longitudinal Educational Assessment Research Network (APPD LEARN) and the APPD Subspecialty Pediatrics Investigator Network (APPD SPIN), which are assessing various aspects of implementation of EPAs for assessing the competence of general pediatric and subspecialty trainees.
Read more about the history of milestones and EPAs:
- The Development of EPAs, Competencies, and Milestones
- When to Trust Trainees to Practice on Their Own
Go directly to the EPAs: