The DOM CBD Planning and Implementation group wanted to ensure that you were aware of updates regarding EPAs and ELENTRA.
1. EPAs are one of several assessment metrics that will be used for residents in the CBD-based programs. Each program’s Competence Committee (CC) and Residency Program Committee (RPC) are tasked with reviewing all of the assessment data and determining if a resident is “entrustable” at their stage of training.
2. When asked to complete an EPA, it is the faculty member's assessment of a single point in time. You do not have to generalize or extrapolate on how the resident would do in a slightly different setting or scenario. This is to capture YOUR point of view on this SPECIFIC ENCOUNTER at this SPECIFIC POINT in TIME.
3. EPAs that faculty have been asked to complete will be taken off ELENTRA 1 week after they are initially posted. (This is new and different from last year.) Completion of EPAs is to provide timely feedback to residents and so should be completed as close to the observed clinical activity as possible.
4. When assessing the clinical setting, there will soon be the opportunity to indicate if the clinical activity took place virtually. If it is virtual, you can indicate if this was via a video or audio platform. It is recognised that some activities (such as physical exams and procedures) cannot be assessed during a virtual visit, but there are many elements of professional activities that can occur in a virtual platform and this new “setting” is meant to capture these. This data will be helpful for the Competence Committee to ensure that each resident is getting the required patient exposure and experiences across their training.
5. The final rating scale “EPA Overall Assessment” has changed across all Postgrad Departments, hoping to make the anchors more straightforward, interpretable and to promote uniformity.
Please see the document for a full explanation but in short the new categories are:
Proficient
(performance was an exemplar)
Competent
(didn’t need to act - coaching aside)
Support
(provided minor re-direction)
Direction
(provided major re-direction)
Intervention
(had to complete some or all of the EPA)
The nuanced interpretation will be discussed in detail by your Program Director, RPC and Competence Committee to help ensure that there is uniformity across your division. (Note that the grading scale for milestones [the sub components of the task] will remain the same for the present.)
6. Please ensure that your email address on ELENTRA is up to date. This is particularly important for faculty at Sinai Health System and St Michael’s Hospital where there have been system wide email changes over the past year. (Once you have signed into ELENTRA, on the U of T Faculty of Medicine header, there is a white dot to the left of your name. If you click on this dot, it takes you to your profile where you can update your contact info.)
