gms | German Medical Science

Introduction: Core competencies have progressively gained importance in medical education. Assessment centers (ACs) are often used to assess competencies in other contexts, especially personnel selection and development. In spite of vast research on ACs, only a limited number of studies on competency based ACs in medical education exist. To the best of our knowledge, the present study provides the first data on the criterion-related validity of a competency based AC in medical education.

Methods: We developed an AC tailored to measure core competencies relevant to medical education (social-ethical, communicative, self- and teaching competency) and tested its validity in n=30 1^st year medical students using 3- to 4-year follow-up measures such as

1.

objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE) on basic clinical skills,

2.

OSCE on communication skills and

3.

peer feedback.

The AC contained 3 elements: interview, group discussion, and role play.

Additionally, a self-report questionnaire was provided as a basis for the interview.

Results: As to the 4^th year measures, the AC average score and teaching competency correlated moderately with the Communication OSCE average score (r=0.41, p=0.03, and r=0.38, p=0.04, respectively). Social-ethical competency in the AC showed a very strong convergent association with the Communication OSCE average score (r=0.60, p<0.01). The AC total score also showed a moderate and marginally significant correlation with the overall peer feedback score provided in year 4 (r=0.38, p=0.06). In addition, communicative competency correlated strongly with the overall peer feedback (r=0.50, p=0.02). We found predominantly low and insignificant correlations between the AC and the OSCE on basic clinical skills (r=-0.33 to 0.30, all p’s>0.05).

Discussion/conclusion: The results showed that competency based ACs can be used at a very early stage of medical training to successfully predict future performance in core competencies.