The video assessment of simulated encounters (VASE): Development and validation of a group-administered method for evaluating clinician skills in motivational interviewing

• Published in: Drug and alcohol dependence Vol. 79; no. 3; pp. 321 - 330
• Main Authors: Rosengren, David B., Baer, John S., Hartzler, Bryan, Dunn, Christopher W., Wells, Elizabeth A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Shannon Elsevier Ireland Ltd 01.09.2005; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Addictive behaviors; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Clinical Competence - standards; Doctors; Drug addiction; Educational Measurement - methods; Evaluation Studies as Topic; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Group Processes; Humans; Interview, Psychological - standards; Male; Measures; Medical sciences; Motivation; Motivational interviewing; Patient Simulation; Professional Competence - standards; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reproducibility of Results; Skill assessment; Skills; Substance abusers; Substance-Related Disorders - diagnosis; Substance-Related Disorders - psychology; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teaching - statistics & numerical data; Toxicology; Training evaluation; Videotape Recording - methods; Motivational interviewing; Training evaluation; Skill assessment; Continuing education; Human; Evaluation; Drug addiction; Physician; Patient; Method; Video recording; Teaching; Test validation; Skill; Addiction; Simulation; Professional competence; Vocational aptitude; Test construction; Psychiatry
• ISSN: 0376-8716; 1879-0046
• DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2005.02.004

The authors developed and evaluated a group-administered method for measuring motivational interviewing (MI) skills. The video assessment of simulated encounters (VASE) consists of three videotaped vignettes of actors playing substance abusers. Each vignette is followed by eight questions asking examinees to generate written responses consistent with MI principles. Twenty-two clinicians completed the VASE questionnaire and two other measures of MI skill: a paper-and-pencil measure that elicited responses to written scenarios and an audiotaped interaction with a standardized patient (SP), subsequently scored for MI skill by independent tape raters. Psychometric analyses of this original VASE scale evaluated: (1) scoring reliability of the 24 VASE items; (2) internal reliability of the VASE full-scale score, seven subscale scores and the three vignettes; and (3) concurrent validity with aforementioned indices of MI skill. Analyses informed the removal of two subscales, redesign of a third and revisions to a fourth. The resulting 18-item VASE-R scale retains its three-vignette format, and assesses overall MI skill as well as the following five MI “microskills”: reflective listening, responding to resistance, summarizing, eliciting change talk and developing discrepancy. The VASE-R requires further analysis to evaluate these revisions, but shows promise as a cost-effective alternative for use in MI skill assessment in a variety of training and research contexts.