National pilot of entrustable professional activities in pathology residency training

Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are observable clinical skills and/or procedures that have been introduced into medical education at the student and resident levels in most specialties to determine readiness to advance into residency or independent practice, respectively. This publication describes the process and outcomes of a pilot study looking at the feasibility of using two anatomic pathology and two clinical pathology EPAs in pathology residency in 6 pathology residency programs that volunteered for the study. Faculty development on EPAs and their assessment was provided to pilot program faculty, and EPA assessment tools were developed and used by the pilot programs. Pre- and post-study surveys were given to participating residents, faculty, and program directors to gauge baseline practices and to gather feedback on the EPA implementation experience. Results demonstrated overall good feasibility in implementing EPAs. Faculty acceptance of EPAs varied and was less than that of program directors. Residents reported a signi ficant increase in the frequency with which faculty provided formative assessments that included speci fic examples of performance and speci fic ways to improve, as well as increased frequency with which faculty provided summative assessments that included speci fic ways to improve. EPAs offered the most bene fit in setting clear expectations for performance of each task, for providing more speci fic feedback to residents, and in increasing Program director's understanding of resident strengths abilities and weaknesses.