Progress testing in postgraduate education in medical microbiology and virology

Background: Modern postgraduate training in medical microbiology requires more objective tools to monitor knowledge during the training than interviews by responsible educational supervisors. Aim: Evaluation of the feasibility and validity of a progress test (PT) to enable formative assessment of the knowledge development in a postgraduate training in medical microbiology. Methods: Data consisted of the scores of all trainees attending the annual PTs in the 5-year postgraduate Medical Microbiology training in the Netherlands from 2005 until 2010. Knowledge development as measured by the PT was analysed per PT by one-way ANOVA over year groups. In addition a longitudinal analysis (repeated measures ANOVA) was applied to the scores of the subgroup of trainees who participated in a four year sequence of PTs. Results: Up until the fourth training year residents who were further advanced in their training, in general scored significantly higher than trainees of lower years (one-way ANOVA, p<0.001), but fifth year trainees scored as well or worse than fourth year trainees. Analysis of the within-student progress knowledge during the first 4 years of training showed significant linear growth. Conclusion: The six year experience with construction and use of the Medical Microbiology PT shows that the procedure is feasible for application in postgraduate training. The obtained results indicate the potential of the PT to provide valuable feedback on the knowledge development of postgraduate trainees. Practice Points 1. Training of the speciality medical microbiology and virology is liable to modernization to meet current societal needs; in 2004 this resulted in a general curriculum in accordance with the CanMed model. 2. A national formative test consisting of case based questions was developed to assess the level of knowledge for all subdomains of medical microbiology in each consecutive year during the 5 years of training. 3. The test proved to be a valid and useful feedback instrument allowing trainees to receive Article Open Access Corresponding author: Mascha Verheggen m.verheggen@maastrichtuniversity.nl Department: Department of Educational development and Educational research, Maastricht University Medical Centre (MUMC), Maastricht, the Netherlands.