APGO

Background: The Association of Professors of Obstetrics and Gynecology has designated a non-directive pregnancy options counseling as one of the few skills in women’s reproductive health at a “does” level of competency, creating the need for a validated assessment tool.  

Methods:   A previously developed rating tool was distributed nationally for enhancement of content validity. A pilot, using an OSCE that also had been previously developed, was implemented in a family medicine clerkship with third year medical students. Response process data directed improved clarity and organization of the tool. Three raters trained through review of training videos and a think-aloud process then used previously taped videos of 46 performances to yield the data for internal structure and correlation with other variables.

Results:   The content validity of the original tool was affirmed. Internal structure data included a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.704. Overall communication skills and the global rating for patient-centered communication generated moderate to substantial agreement. All but one item unique to the clinical situation of pregnancy options counseling generated substantial to near-perfect agreement. Relations to other variables within the checklist were strong, while relations to variables assessed outside of this OSCE, including clerkship communication grades, was poor.

Discussions:   This tool for assessing pregnancy options counseling skills has excellent content and strong internal structure validity. Further work to improve the validity of the global and overall communication skills scales may be necessary for summative use.

Keywords: OSCE asssessment pregnancy-options