Validity and Educational Impact of Clinical Entrustable Professional Activities Linked to the Nutrition Care Process for Work-Based Assessment of Entry-Level Dietetics Students: Evaluation of a 3-Year Implementation Study in Australia

Background Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) describe key workplace activities and are increasingly being used for student work-based assessment. An EPA-based work -based assessment tool offers potential to increase understanding of dietetics student skill development and opportunity for standardised work-based student assessment.Objective To determine construct validity and educational impact of an EPA work -based assessment tool for dietetics placement students in clinical settings.Design Using a time series design, supervisor and student self-assessment data collected from an EPA-based assessment tool from three cohorts of dietetics students and supervisors from 2017-2019 was analyzed.Participants and setting Dietetics students (n 1/4 145) from an accredited dietetic training program in Australia and affiliated metropolitan and rural hospitals.Main outcome measures Construct validity was determined through analysis of su-pervisor evaluation of student performance against EPAs over time. Educational impact was determined through comparing student performance across EPAs to predicted milestones to identify areas of least entrustment.Statistical analyses performed Student performance over time and differences be-tween student self-assessment and supervisor assessment for each EPA were investi-gated using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests and linear mixed-model analysis. Descriptive statistics summarised student performance against each EPA.Results Performance significantly increased over time in 35 out of 37 EPAs. Significant differences between supervisor and student self-assessment were evident in 9 out of 37 EPAs. Dietetics student performance varied across EPAs with 88.2% of students achieving entrustment for nutrition management EPAs compared with 100% for pro-fessionalism EPAs.Conclusions The tool's construct validity was established. EPAs identified areas of Nutrition Care Process skills development requiring additional support. Data collected by the tool can inform teaching.J Acad Nutr Diet. 2023;123(4):614-625.

Automated summary

This study examined the construct validity and educational impact of an EPA-based work-based assessment tool for dietetics placement students. The results showed significant improvement in student performance over time for most EPAs, but there were discrepancies between supervisor and student self-assessment in some EPAs. The findings provide important insights for student skill development and teaching in the field of dietetics.