Competency-Based Self-Assessment Tools: A Mixed-Methods Retrospective Analysis of Need.

Abstract

Quality research management is the cornerstone of clinical and translational science. In 2006, the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) created the Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) program to train new generations of clinical and translational researchers (Patel et al., 2019). While 60+ academic medical centers have created workforce development programs through CTSA funding, evaluating the use and comparative efficacy of competency-based assessment tools to understand the effectiveness of these programs has remained unreported. Competency-based selfassessment tools (CBSTs) are question-based instruments to evaluate one’s confidence in specific professional competencies with an implicit assumption that confidence may translate into competency (Robinson et al., 2013). CBSTs would allow programs to measure indirectly key professional development milestones of trainees. Currently, several CBSTs exist to assess individuals in specific clinical research roles, such as principal investigator, clinical research coordinator, and other ancillary research staff (Hornung, Ianni, Jones, Samuels, & Ellingrod, 2019; Hornung et al., 2018; Mullikin, Bakken, & Betz, 2007), but little has been reported about the use or need for CBSTs within the CTSA community. Consequently, the New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS) Workforce Development Core conducted a CTSA consortium-wide assessment to evaluate the present use and potential need for CBSTs in evaluating CTSA trainees. This work is a retrospective analysis of those materials, conducted to understand both the utility of CBSTs as an evaluation component to CTSA workforce development activities and which professional competencies are valued.