The Role of Assessment in Surgical Education

Abstract

Overview As competency-based medical education (CBME) continues to infiltrate postgraduate training, the focus among educators and researchers has shifted toward trainee assessment. Summative assessments are those from which consequences arise for both the trainee and training program. The main intent of summative assessments is to differentiate between different trainee states. Thus psychometric rigor must be at the center of such assessments to ensure defensible results. While no model has been created specifically to design such assessments, the evidence-centered assessment design (ECD) framework can be adapted to serve this purpose. Furthermore, there is published literature which outlines the criteria for "good" assessments-which taken together can serve a great starting point in the creation of summative assessments. Although progress has been made to date, the current summative assessments have limitations. As such more evidence is needed to support the interpretation of the results of such assessments.