Entrustable Professional Activities versus Competencies and Skills: Exploring Why Different Concepts Are Often Conflated

Autor/inn/en	ten Cate, Olle; Schumacher, Daniel J.
Titel	Entrustable Professional Activities versus Competencies and Skills: Exploring Why Different Concepts Are Often Conflated
Quelle	In: Advances in Health Sciences Education, 27 (2022) 2, S.491-499 (9 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (ten Cate, Olle) ORCID (Schumacher, Daniel J.)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1382-4996
DOI	10.1007/s10459-022-10098-7
Schlagwörter	Professional Development; Competence; Skills; Medical Education; Educational Objectives + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Kompetenz; Skill; Fertigkeit; Medizinische Ausbildung; Educational objective; Bildungsziel; Erziehungsziel
Abstract	Despite explanations in the literature, a returning question in the use of entrustable professional activities (EPAs) is how to distinguish them from competencies and skills. In this article, we attempt to analyze the causes of the frequent confusion and conflation of EPAs with competencies and skills, and argue why the distinction is important for education, qualification and patient safety. 'Tracheotomy', 'lumbar puncture', 'interprofessional collaboration' for example are colloquially called 'skills', but its is a person's "ability" to perform these activities that is the actual skill; the EPA is simply the activity itself. We identify two possible causes for the confusion. One is a tendency to frame all educational objectives as EPAs. Many objectives of medical training can be conceptualized as EPAs, if 'the ability to do X' is the corresponding competency; but that does not work for all. We offer ways to deal with objectives of training that are not usefully conceptualized as EPAs. A more fundamental cause relates to entrustment decisions. The permission to contribute to health care reflects entrustment. Entrustment decisions are the links or pivots between a person's readiness for the task and the actual task execution. However, if entrustment decisions do not lead to increased autonomy in the practice of health care, but only serve to decide upon the advancement to a next stage of training, EPAs can become the tick boxes learners feel they need to collect to 'pass'. Gradually, then, EPAs can lose their original meaning of units of practice for which one becomes qualified. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01