Entrustable professional activities for bedside clinical teachers

Abstract

Background: Bedside teaching is an important modality for training medical students and postgraduate trainees in clinical settings. Despite its significance, the effective practice of Bedside teaching has been declining over the past few decades. The literature highlighted the need for structured training, assessment, and certification or in other words entrustment of bedside teachers. The current study aims to develop and validate the Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) for bedside clinical teachers. Methods: A multi-method study with clinical teachers, medical educationists, and postgraduate medical students was conducted from July 2021-22. First, a nominal group using the jigsaw puzzle technique was conducted with 16 participants to identify EPAs. Then these EPAs were mapped and validated by the skills/competencies identified in the literature. Next, the EPAs were evaluated using the EQual rubric by 3 medical educationists. This was followed by two-rounds of modified Delphi to develop consensus among 90 participants in round-one and 69 in round-two. For qualitative data, a thematic analysis was conducted. For quantitative data, means and standard deviations were calculated. Results: The study identified five EPAs for bedside clinical teachers: developing bedside teaching program, planning bedside teaching session, conducting bedside teaching, conducting bedside assessments and evaluating bedside teaching. Conclusions: This study comprehensively developed and validated a full description of EPAs for bedside clinical teachers. The EPAs identified in the study can serve as a guiding framework for bedside clinical teachers' training, assessment, and entrustment.