title: Assessment of competence: developing trends and ethical considerations.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This review explores new concepts in competency assessment in anesthesiology, the associated ethical challenges, and directions for new research.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Many new tools for the assessment of competence are currently in development to address changes in medical education curricula. The assessment of competence currently focuses on technical skills, nontechnical skills, and the interaction of both through the use of simulation, with increasing emphasis on validity and reliability testing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The search for objective measures of competence is well underway. Current methods require substantial investment of resources, and further research into more efficient and financially feasible tools of assessment is needed. As these assessments become more common in use, the ethical challenges raised by defining competency in high-stakes clinical practice situations will need to be addressed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chin
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Lagasse
mesh_terms: D000758:Anesthesia / Q000379:methods; D000776:Anesthesiology / Q000193:education* / Q000941:ethics; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003479:Curriculum / Q000639:trends; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000639:trends*; D004521:Educational Measurement; D006801:Humans; D018024:Peer Review, Health Care / Q000941:ethics* / Q000639:trends; D000066908:Simulation Training / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods