The Development of a Competencies Assessment's Tool for Emergency Medical Students and Residents: a Nationwide Delphi Study

Aim: Our work is part of a competence-based assessment approach. Our aim was to determine three clinical situations that need a simulation-based-assessment for medical students and residents and then, to develop a score for each situation. Material and methods: We have conducted two consensus groups' methods. First, we have asked all French residency program directors in emergency medicine to determine the clinical situations that we had to score. The second step consisted in the use of a Delphi technique, in three rounds, to achieve consensus and to select items that had to be part of the assessment score. Among the 86 solicited experts, we aimed to have 20 experts for each of the three scores. Within the rounds 1 and 2, experts were asked to note items on a Likert scale, and for the last round on a binary scale. For rounds 1 and 2, consensus rate of 75% was agreed upon. It was 85% for round 3. Results: The directors identified those clinical situations: cardiac arrest, acute respiratory failure and non-traumatic coma. Response rates for the Delphi were 59% for the overall participation, and then varied from 80 to 95% in each round, for each score. We have found 20 categories for each situation, and made scores with those categories. Conclusion: With the help of consensus groups' methods, we have found three clinical situations important to assess by simulation in emergency medicine, and developed a score for each situation, made of 20 categories.