Workplace-based assessment and the art of performance.

摘要

The challenge we have with assessing generalism, the most complex of medical specialties, is that although we recognise what a good GP is (it's someone we would trust to look after our family, isn't it?) we can't easily define what that means. However, if we want our assessments to be valid, we shouldn't be deterred by what Einstein said but should learn to count more appropriately. Or rather, we should learn to assess more appropriately because with complex abilities that are perceptible but not readily quantifiable, counting is not enough. Nowhere is this more evident than in workplace-based assessment (WPBA) in which qualitative and quantitative techniques coexist, construing the development and assessment of performance as both an art and an evolving science.