Adaptation, psychometric properties and implementation of the Mini-CEX in dental clerkship

Abstract

Background: Workplace-based assessment is a key component of dental students during their clerkship in order to demonstrate clinical proficiency. Purpose: This study aims to analyze the results obtained from adapting the Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) to the clerkship of a dentistry program, and to examine its psychometric properties. Methods: First, a Delphi panel method was used to ensure content validity. Then, the Mini-CEX was piloted in the dental clerkship where each student was assessed by at least two supervisors and a peer student; the psychometric properties, acceptability, and observation-time were analyzed afterward. Results: The pilot study was conducted between July and November of 2019. One hundred forty Mini-CEX were carried out on 30 students, eighty-four by supervisors and fifty-six by peers. The adapted instrument was proved to be unidimensional, obtaining an acceptable internal consistency (α=0.74). There was a difference in observation-time as the type of assessor changed; the medians (Q1-Q3) were 10 minutes (5-15) for supervisors and 30 minutes (20-45) for peer students (p<0.001). This difference was also observed when analyzing the assessor’s satisfaction (p<0.001) since the supervisor scored a median of 6 (6-6.75), and peer students scored a median of 7 (6-7). No differences were found between the scores given by supervisors and peers. Conclusion: The adapted version of the Mini-CEX can objectively assess students' clinical performance of dental student based on values of validity and reliability, which are similar to those obtained in the original instrument.