gms | German Medical Science

Entrustable professional activities as a new concept in clinical training is surprisingly quickly becoming part of the vocabulary of competency-based medical education. EPAs, the units of professional practice that learners may be entrusted to perform once they have demonstrated the required competence, add some specific features to clinical raining. First, it allows shaping training to focus on concrete objectives in health care. Next, the assessment of learners is directly translated to a level of supervision. Third, it allows viewing clinical training as flexible trajectories that may vary among individuals. Finally, it redirects the thinking of assessment of learners and professionals in terms of professional trust. This contribution will update the audience with the current thinking about EPAs in postgraduate and undergraduate medical education and will give an impression of the variety of applications. Some critical issues of implementation will be discussed and a view on the near future will be given.