Role of written examination in the assessment of attitude ethics and communication in medical students: Perceptions of medical faculties

BACKGROUND: The study aims to record the perceptions of medical faculties regarding the effectiveness of theory-based examination to assess the newly introduced competencies of attitude ethics and communication (AETCOM) in the competency-based medical curriculum for Indian medical graduates. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is an analytical cross-sectional study performed on the month of February 2020 where a prevalidated questionnaire consisting of components of AETCOM was e-mailed to the teaching faculties of IQ City Medical College via Google Forms. Consenting faculties responded. Their results were analyzed by inbuilt Google statistics and were cross-verified with SPSS 20.0. RESULTS: Sixty percent faculties strongly agree regarding the beneficial role of mandatory inclusion of AETCOM competencies in competency-based medical education. About 61.66% of faculties strongly agree that both formative assessment and summative assessment of AETCOM are essential. Although 48.33% of faculties believed that theoretical questions can be used to assess AETCOM, 51.66% of faculties do not agree that theory examination serves as an effective tool to assess AETCOM. They believe that AETCOM cannot be written on paper and attitude can change in reality when facing a real-world clinical scenario in contrast to what is written in answer script during creative writing. CONCLUSIONS: Assessment of AETCOM is essential and it should be preferably done via a practical approach in a real-world simulated scenario and not by written theoretical examination.