A Focused Observation Tool Using Dreyfus Stages of Skill Acquisition as an Evaluative Scale

• Published in: West Virginia medical journal Vol. 113; no. 2; p. 36
• Main Authors: Driver, Jr, Richard, Grose, Brian, Serafini, Mario, Cottrell, Scott, Sizemore, Daniel, Vallejo, Manuel
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.03.2017
• Subjects: Clinical Competence - standards; Competency-Based Education - methods; Competency-Based Education - standards; Humans; Internship and Residency - standards; Intubation, Intratracheal - methods; Intubation, Intratracheal - standards; West Virginia
• ISSN: 0043-3284

Focused Observartion (FO) is associated with assessing complex skills and differs from generalized observations and evaluations. We've developed a FO assessing clinical procedural skills using Hubert Dreyfus Stages of Skill Acquisition as descriptive anchors. This study sought to analyze the effectiveness of this measure of skill progression. During week 1 and week 4 of training, FO was performed repetitively on 6 residents during endotracheal intubation. Skill stage ratings were converted to numerical scores. A dependent, paired samples t-test was calculated using total mean score (dependent variable) and an effect size. (Cohen's d) was performed to ascertain the standardized mean difference between observations. A significant improvement in mean scores occurred between Week 1 (AVG 1.2, STDV ± 0.1) and Week 4 (AVG 2.0, STDV ± 0.1) (t= -3.9, p<.05) Calculated Chohen's d indicates that this difference was meaningful. This study demonstrates success in adapting a Focused Observation technique and an innovative evaluative scale based upon Dreyfus stages of skill acquisition.