1. Construct Validity of Three Clerkship Performance Assessments
- Author
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Lee, Ming and Wimmers, Paul F.
- Abstract
This study examined construct validity of three commonly used clerkship performance assessments: preceptors' evaluations, OSCE-type clinical performance measures, and the NBME [National Board of Medical Examiners] medicine subject examination. Six hundred and eighty-six students taking the inpatient medicine clerkship from 2003 to 2007 participated in the study. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses using the structural equation modeling procedure were adopted to examine the latent domains underlying various indicators assessed by these three measures and the pattern of indicator-domain relationships. Three separate, though correlated, constructs, labeled Clinical Performance, Interpersonal Skills, and Clinical Knowledge, were confirmed by factor analyses. The three domains tapped a common higher-order construct, Clinical Competence, in varied degrees of magnitude (0.56, 0.69, 0.77, respectively). This study demonstrated that although the three commonly used tools for assessing clerkship performance contributed uniquely to the understanding of clinical performance, they also attested a shared domain of clinical competence in their assessment. The study thus confirmed the need for a multiple-trait-multiple-method approach to clerkship assessment. Findings also revealed that clerkship preceptors need to differentiate their judgment of students' performances. (Contains 1 figure and 1 table.)
- Published
- 2010