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Towards an operational definition of competence.
- Format:
- Book
- Thesis/Dissertation
- Author/Creator:
- Greenhow, D. Eric.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Health education.
- Medical sciences--Education.
- Medical sciences.
- Education.
- 0350.
- 0680.
- Penn dissertations--Education.
- Education--Penn dissertations.
- Local Subjects:
- Penn dissertations--Education.
- Education--Penn dissertations.
- 0350.
- 0680.
- Physical Description:
- 150 pages
- Contained In:
- Dissertation Abstracts International 52-07A.
- System Details:
- Mode of access: World Wide Web.
- text file
- Summary:
- It is essential that those who are responsible for immediate life-and-death decisions in caring for patients be competent to do so. A problem is that there is no universal standard of 'competence'. The purpose of this study was to develop the construct 'clinical competence in anesthesiology' as an educational outcome of training.
- Three sets of data (categorical scores, committee vote, and formal comments) were collected from records of the 198 physicians who trained in anesthesia at the University of Pennsylvania from 1979 to 1987. The trainees were divided into three groups based on (a) whether they withdrew, and (b) of the remainder, a dichotomous vote of a group of faculty: the Clinical Competence Committee. The groups were (1) Separated; those who withdrew (n = 11); (2) Ambiguously Competent; those voted by the committee as competent with some committee members dissenting (n = 50); and (3) Unanimously Competent; those who were voted unanimously as competent (n = 137).
- Discriminant analysis of the categorical scores for a sample of one-half the trainees was done. The discriminant groups were the three groups defined above. D-scores were derived for each trainee. The sample group was correctly classified 91.92% and the cross validation group, 80.81%.
- A lexicon of words used in the comments was developed by assigning the nominal value used in Roget's Thesaurus ("Roget Number"). An aggregate frequency for each "Roget Number" was calculated for each of the three criterion groups. Discriminant analysis of key concepts represented by the "Roget Number" for 101 trainees was done, (the 11 separated trainees, 34 of the ambiguously competent trainees, and 56 of the unanimously competent trainees). D-scores were derived for each of these trainees, and 92.08% were correctly classified.
- These differing concepts with the categorical data form a construct: 'Clinical competence in anesthesiology.' Similarities and differences between this description and the rationally derived definition of the American Board of Anesthesiology (the accrediting agency) were examined and discussed. Generalizability of definitions derived using lexical analysis is limited by idiosyncratic and situational factors, but such analyses serve to enrich the definitions of complex human behavior which education may undertake to change.
- Notes:
- Thesis (Ph.D. in Education) -- Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania, 1991.
- Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-07, Section: A, page: 2418.
- Supervisor: Edwin B. Hutchins.
- Local Notes:
- School code: 0175.
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license.
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