Adaptation, psychometric properties, and implementation of the Mini-CEX in dental clerkship

Background: Workplace-based assessment is a key component of dental-student clerkships, allowing students to demonstrate clinical proficiency.

Purpose: This study adapts the Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) to a dentistry-program clerkship, analyzing the results and examining the psychometric properties of Mini-CEX.

Methods: First, Delphi panel methodology was used to ensure content validity. Mini-CEX was then piloted in the dental-clerkship program, with each student assessed by at least 2 supervisors and a peer student. Subsequently, psychometric properties, acceptability, and observation time were analyzed.

Results: The study was conducted between July and November 2019. Overall, 140 Mini-CEX evaluation exercises were carried out on 30 students by 84 supervisors and 56 peers. The adapted instrument was found to be unidimensional, obtaining an acceptable internal consistency (α = 0.74). As the assessor type changed, there were differences in observation time; the medians (Q1-Q3) were 10 minutes (5-15) for supervisors and 30 minutes (20-45) for peer students (P < 0.001). This difference was also observed in assessor perceptions (P < 0.001), with supervisors scoring a median of 6 (6-6.75) and peer students scoring a median of 7 (6-7). No differences were found between supervisor and peer scores.

Conclusion: The adapted version of Mini-CEX can objectively assess the clinical performance of dental students, achieving validity and reliability values similar to those obtained in the original instrument.