Toward competency-based curriculum: Application of workplace-based assessment tools in the National Saudi Arabian Anesthesia Training Program.
BACKGROUND
The anesthesia training program of the Saudi Commission for health specialties has introduced a developed competency-based anesthesia residency program starting from 2015 with the utilization of the workplace-based assessment (WBA) tools, namely mini-clinical exercises (mini-CEX), direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS), and case-based discussion (CBD).


OBJECTIVE
This work aimed to describe the process of development of anesthesia-specific list of mini-CEX, DOPS, and CBD tools within the Saudi Arabian Anesthesia Training Programs.


METHODS
To introduce the main concepts of formative WBA tools and to develop anesthesia-specific applications for each of the selected WBA tools, four 1-day workshops were held at the level of major training committees at eastern (Dammam), western (Jeddah), and central (Riyadh) regions in the Kingdom were conducted. Sixty-seven faculties participated in these workshops.


RESULTS
After conduction of the four workshops, the anesthesia-specific applications setting of mini-CEX, DOPS, and CBD tools among the 5-year levels were fully described. The level of the appropriate consultation skills was divided according to the case complexity adopted from the American Society of Anesthesiologists physical classification for adult and obstetric and pediatric patient as well as the type of the targeted anesthetic procedure.


CONCLUSIONS
WBA anesthesia-specific lists of mini-CEX, DOPS, and CBD forms were easily incorporated first into guidelines to help the first stage of implementation of formative assessment in the Saudi Arabian Anesthesia Residency Program, and this can be helpful to replicate such program within other various training programs in Saudi Arabia and abroad.
Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Clinical Skill Center, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
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Boker
Anesthesia applications; Saudi Arabian; competency; curriculum; program; residency; workplace-based assessment