title: Competency-based achievement system: using formative feedback to teach and assess family medicine residents' skills.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Family medicine residency programs require innovative means to assess residents' competence in "soft" skills (eg, patient-centred care, communication, and professionalism) and to identify residents who are having difficulty early enough in their residency to provide remedial training.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To develop a method to assess residents' competence in various skills and to identify residents who are having difficulty.
  
  
  METHODS
  The Competency-Based Achievement System (CBAS) was designed to measure competence using 3 main principles: formative feedback, guided self-assessment, and regular face-to-face meetings. The CBAS is resident driven and provides a framework for meaningful interactions between residents and advisors. Residents use the CBAS to organize and review their feedback, to guide their own assessment of their progress, and to discern their future learning needs. Advisors use the CBAS to monitor, guide, and verify residents' knowledge of and competence in important skills.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By focusing on specific skills and behaviour, the CBAS enables residents and advisors to make formative assessments and to communicate their findings. Feedback indicates that the CBAS is a user-friendly and helpful system to assess competence.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2C8, Canada. shelley.ross@ualberta.ca
authors.forename: Shelley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: Cheryl N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Poth
authors.forename: Michel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Donoff
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Humphries
authors.forename: Ivan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Steiner
authors.forename: Shirley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schipper
authors.forename: Fred
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Janke
authors.forename: Darren
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Nichols
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D002983:Clinical Competence; D005194:Family Practice / Q000193:education*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D017145:Models, Educational