CONCLUSION

Congratulations, you have completed the workshop Performance assessment.

For an overview of the entire workshop, see the visual map of the site:

Instructions:

First, click on “Start here”.
Click on the buttons in the left panel to navigate through the various units.

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A man and a woman are standing in front of three doors

A woman at her computer, is giving feedback to a man

A woman, standing in front of a board displaying a graphic, is speaking to a man sitting at his desk

A supervisor is taking notes while observing her trainee attending to a patient

A woman is sitting at her computer where the monitor is displaying various data

A woman, at her computer, is having a discussion with another woman sitting in front of her

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You can click on each tab to review key concepts for each unit. They can also be found in the Resources section of the main menu.

The ABCs of performance assessment

Performance assessment is a process that leads to a verdict on the trainee’s performance, based on valid and legitimate information.
The assessment process plays a crucial role in the trainee’s journey, and it also has an impact on your skills as a supervisor and on the quality of care provided to patients.
We reviewed two types of assessment:

The formative assessment, which promotes the development of the trainee’s competencies, by highlighting his strengths and challenges and by planning strategies to alleviate these challenges.
The summative assessment, which consists in an overview and summing up of the trainee’s progress, comparing it against criteria established by the academic setting.

The assessment process includes five steps:

Planning
Collecting information on the trainee’s behaviours
Interpreting the information
Communicating appreciations to the trainee (feedback)
Decision-making

Planning a trainee’s assessment

It is essential to build a trusting relationship with your trainee so that both parties communicate openly.
Discussions about mutual expectations, learning objectives as well as criteria, indicators and descriptors which will be part of the trainee’s assessment foster mutual understanding and prevent any disagreement.
The development of a learning contract with your trainee will set out in writing the assessment process used during the placement (objectives to achieve, assessment methods and dates, etc.) and ensure that both parties are in agreement on these matters.

Collecting information: what and how?

Collecting information is a step that must be meticulously conducted, using various methods at different moments to gather information, in order to create the best representation of the trainee’s performance.
To appreciate the evolution of the trainee’s competencies, the supervisor will need to collect information on the internal resources that the trainee mobilizes in various situations, namely knowledge, know-how and self-management.
Performance assessment must rely on facts, which are careful observations of phenomenons as they occur, without modification, and that everyone agrees on.
Collecting information requires reliable tools that lead to the objective measure of the three levels of knowledge, such as observation (direct or indirect), evaluation grids, questions in the form of discussions, reviews of written files, videoscopy, role plays, clinical vignettes and concept maps.
To enhance his process for collecting information, the supervisor uses several formats in his assessment: self-assessment, co-assessment and 360° assessment. Your trainee, his fellow students, but also your colleagues and patients with whom your trainee had contacts could also provide relevant information, thus painting a broader picture of your trainee’s learnings.
Your trainee can also rely on tools such as videoscopy, role plays, clinical vignettes, concept maps, logbooks and portfolios to develop his self-assessment skills.

Interpreting the information

Judgement consists in drawing a conclusion or stating an opinion about the acquired competencies; it must be based on measurable facts.
To maintain objectivity in his judgement, the supervisor must accept the existence of subjectivity, while being mindful of his personal filters and avoiding the selection of facts and generalizations.
Being aware of one’s own cognitive biases is the best way to counter them.
Ethical notions of thoroughness, transparency and confidentiality must be at the forefront of an objective judgement.

Communicating your appreciation to the trainee: the principles of effective feedback

Feedback is essential to fostering learning.
It is an interactive and bidirectional process.
Feedback is precise, specific and concerns observations and various aspects related to the trainee’s performance.
Several methods allow you to formulate and structure your feedback, namely the feedback sandwich, the chronological mode, the Ask/Tell/Ask approach, the PEARLS model, the one-minute supervisor, the R2C2 model, Pendleton’s model or Hattie & Timperley’s feedback model.
Feedback should be given at different moments, according to the situation. However, feedback should generally take place as soon as possible after the observation period.
Our 15 tips will assist you in articulating your feedback strategically.

Decision-making: a key step in the assessment process

Is central to the assessment process and decisive with regards to the placement progress.
Is based on formative assessments aimed at improving learning. It allows the supervisor to gauge the congruence of assessment modalities as related to the trainee’s learning objectives and to adjust support strategies.
Is based on summative assessments, aimed at measuring learning. It allows the supervisor to:

Validate the achievement of the level of competence s against predefined criteria.
Identify future learning needs.
Inform the academic setting that the trainee’s placement was a success, a failure or that changes need to be made.
In adopting the roles of counsellor and confrontation advisor, you will be able to apply the proposed suggestions to simplify the decision-making process when assessing a problem trainee.

To remember the knowledge you gained and apply it daily as a supervisor, don’t forget to click on your basket to see the tools or review some parts of the workshop that you deem most relevant, as well as aspects that you would like to work on.

At the start of the workshop, you stated the following expectations:

A stick person seems to have questions while looking at a check list.

Did the workshop meet your expectations?

Yes

We hope that your answer was positive and that you can now better define what is involved in performance assessment, and implement the five-step process with your trainees.

You have now travelled the road leading to successful assessments!

If you have pending questions or if the workshop did not meet your expectations, please contact the resource person for this workshop, Patricia Côté-Giroux, at the following email address: Patricia.Cote-Giroux@uOttawa.ca.

You can now go the Workshop Evaluation. After this evaluation, you can do the Final Exam if you wish to receive a certificate for this workshop.

Continue to the workshop evaluation Continue to the final exam

Design and Production by: TLSS, University of Ottawa

CONCLUSION

The ABCs of performance assessment

Planning a trainee’s assessment

Collecting information: what and how?

Interpreting the information

Communicating your appreciation to the trainee: the principles of effective feedback

Decision-making: a key step in the assessment process

Frequently asked questions – Online workshops

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