Abstract
Objective
Receiving and integrating feedback is a key to medical trainee development. To assist
trainees seeking improvement through daily formative feedback and deliberate practice,
the authors created a new skills-based framework called microskills, derived from
the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACMGE) milestones and entrustable
professional activities. The authors then explored pediatric resident perceptions
around the applicability and usefulness of microskills.
Methods
The authors conducted 4 qualitative semistructured focus groups of 28 pediatric residents.
Focus group prompts asked participants to reflect on microskills as a new feedback
modality and microskills in relation to existing feedback and assessment approaches.
Focus group transcripts were analyzed through inductive thematic analysis through
an iterative process until theoretical saturation was reached.
Results
Participants felt microskills could facilitate skill-building and improvement, allow
for consistent, targeted feedback, and establish a practice of coaching. Participants
also perceived microskills’ future success to be dependent on how the modality is
adopted and utilized alongside existing assessment tools.
Conclusions
Trainees found microskills to be a granular, context-based, coaching tool that could
improve skill-building and the feedback process. Microskills’ emphasis on feedback
and their delineation of clinical skills that can be repeatedly practiced has the
potential to provide a roadmap for trainee growth. Though microskills could fill a
current need in the medical training landscape, they are not a substitute for existing
assessment frameworks.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: December 25, 2021
Accepted:
December 13,
2021
Received:
July 5,
2021
Footnotes
The authors have no funding disclosures or conflicts of interest to report.
Identification
Copyright
Copyright © 2021 by Academic Pediatric Association
