gms | German Medical Science

Background and Question: Twelve Core “Entrustable Professional Activities” EPAs were recently defined at the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany, i.e. tasks every graduating medical students should be able to perform under distant supervision when entering residency. We analyzed to what extent this outcome is met in graduating students from a traditional undergraduate medical curriculum.

Methods: An online questionnaire was send to graduating students of the traditional curriculum at the Charité. Students were asked how confident they felt to perform each of the 12 EPAs under distant supervision (supervisor not readily available, results reviewed) within the first days of residency.

Results: Sixty-three students responded (44 females, 21 males, mean age of 27 years, response rate 13%). The students confidence varied markedly between the EPAs, ranging from 97% (take a medical history, perform a physical exam and provide a structured summary) over 41% (compile a diagnostic work plan and initiate implementation) to 23% (recognize an emergency situation and act upon it).

Discussion/Conclusion: The approach of this study provides meaningful, concise and sufficiently detailed insight into the extent graduating medical students feel confident to perform Core EPAs for entering residency. It allows to identify key gaps in an undergraduate medical program and its transfer to workplace learning and performance.

In the program evaluated the graduating medical students reported very variable confidence to carry out end-of-training Core EPAs as defined in the same institution. The results our study will be used to discuss what curricular changes are needed to archive the consented key outcomes for undergraduate medical education at our institution.