Validation of entrustable professional activities for use in neonatal care residency programs

Objective

Define and develop a set of entrustable professional activities (EPAs) to link clinical training and assessment of the hospital components of neonatal care in neonatology medical residency programs.

Methods

An exploratory study was conducted in two phases using a modified Delphi approach. In the first phase, a committee of five neonatology residency program coordinators drafted an initial set of EPAs based on the national matrix of competencies and on EPAs defined by international organizations. In the second phase, a group of neonatal care physicians and medical residents rated the indispensability and clarity of the EPAs and provided comments and suggestions.

Results

Seven EPAs were drafted by the coordinators´ committee (n = 5) and used in the content validation process with a group (n = 37) of neonatal care physicians and medical residents. In the first Delphi round, all EPAs reached a content validity index (CVI) above 0.8. The coordinators´ committee analyzed comments and suggestions and revised the EPAs. A second Delphi round with the revised EPAs was conducted to validate and all items maintained a CVI above 0.8 for indispensability and clarity.

Conclusion

Seven entrustable professional activities were developed to assess residents in the hospital components of neonatal care medicine. These EPAs might contribute to implementing competency-based neonatology medical residency programs grounded in core professional activities.