Professor Fiona Patterson and colleagues author the 100th AMEE Guide: Situational Judgement Tests in Medical Education and Training; Research, Theory and Practice
A recent independent validation study undertaken by the Work Psychology Group for Health Education England and the UKFPO has found positive early evidence to support the continued use of the current Foundation Programme selection tools, Educational Performance Measure and the Situational Judgement Test.
The findings of the report, Validation of the F1 Selection Tools suggest that these two assessments are complementary in predicting F1 performance and supports the use of both measures in the application process.
The study tracked a sample of applicants to FP 2013 who achieved particularly high and low Situational Judgement Test (SJT) scores at application across five foundation schools (NB foundation schools were not provided with information regarding applicants’ SJT scores) The results found significant differences in the doctors’ performance at the end of the first year of training (as rated by supervisors), with those who scored poorly in the SJT receiving statistically lower performance ratings than those who scored well.
The data reveal that the SJT is best able to predict future performance within low scoring applicants on the overall application score whereas the Educational Performance Measure (EPM) is best able to predict performance within high scoring applicants. This suggests that the two measures (SJT and EPM) are complementary in predicting F1 performance and supports the use of both measures in the application process.
There is no evidence to suggest a change from the current equal weighting between the SJT and EPM.
The findings support the use of the SJT for screening out unsuitable applicants (i.e. those with exceptionally low SJT scores).
