Introduction
Competency-based medical education (CBME) has been implemented in postgraduate medical education, and Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) seem appropriate for operationalizing it. However, the association between residents´ self-perceived confidence in performing EPAs and entrustment levels assigned by a Clinical Competence Committee (CCC) must be better understood. We aimed to compare general surgery residents' self-assessment of confidence to perform EPAs and entrustment levels assigned by a CCC.
Material and methods
Cross-sectional study conducted in the General Surgery Residency Program at Santa Casa BH Hospital between March and May 2023. Residents self-assessed their confidence to perform 16 EPAs using a 5-point entrustment scale. Confidence levels were compared to entrustment levels assigned by the CCC. A comparison was performed separately for each EPA and by EPA characteristics (clinical surgical vs. procedural and simple x complex).
Results
There was a significant difference between the self-assessed confidence levels and the autonomy levels assigned by the CCC in nine of the 16 EPAs. Residents' self-assessment levels were higher than those assigned by the CCC for clinical surgical EPAs (4.3 ± 0.8 vs. 3.2 ± 1.4, respectively; p < 0.001) and simple EPAs (2.8 ± 1.0 vs. 2.2 ± 0.8, respectively; p = 0.023). In procedural and complex EPAs, this difference was not statistically significant (p > 0.05).
Conclusion
Residents tended to overestimate their level of autonomy, especially for clinical-surgical EPAs and simpler EPAs.
