An introduction to workplace-based assessments

Recent trends in medical education are moving rapidly away from gaining a certain number of marks in high-stakes examinations and towards gathering evidence of clinical competence and professional behavior observed in clinical environments (workplace-based learning). In the Miller's framework for assessing clinical competence, workplace-based methods of assessment target the highest level of the pyramid and collect information about doctors’ performance in their everyday practice. Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS), Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mini-CEX) and Case-based discussion (CbD) are some of the most commonly used methods of workplace-based assessments. I explain these three methods of assessment and their advantages and discuss that if incorporated in a structured program of teaching for doctors in training, they can promote active, learner-centered learning and facilitate provision of developmental verbal feedback to the trainee immediately afterwards.