Faculty and Resident Engagement With a Workplace-Based Assessment Tool: Use of Implementation Science to Explore Enablers and Barriers

Purpose Implementation of workplace-based assessment programs has encountered significant challenges. Faculty and residents alike often have a negative view of these programs as “tick-box” or “jump through the hoops” exercises. A number of recommendations have been made to address these challenges. To understand the experience with a workplace-based assessment tool that follows many of these recommendations, the authors conducted a qualitative study using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to identify enablers and barriers to engagement with the tool. Method The Psychopharmacotherapy-Structured Clinical Observation (P-SCO) is a direct observation tool designed to assess resident performance during a psychiatric medication management visit. From August 2017 to February 2018, the P-SCO was implemented in the outpatient continuity clinics for second- and third-year residents at Zucker Hillside Hospital/Northwell Health. In February and March 2019, the authors conducted semistructured interviews of participating faculty and residents. Interview guides based on the CFIR were used to capture the enablers and barriers to engagement. Interview transcripts were independently coded. Codes were then organized into themes relevant to the domains of the CFIR. Results Ten faculty and 10 residents were interviewed. Overall, participants had a positive experience with the P-SCO. Enabling factors for faculty and residents included the ongoing training, design features of the P-SCO, predisposing beliefs, dedicated faculty time, and the perception that the P-SCO improved verbal feedback quality. Barriers for faculty included checklist length and discomfort with feedback that threatens identity, and barriers for residents included faculty variability in timeliness and quality of feedback and minimal review of the feedback after initial receipt. Conclusions This study demonstrates that the negative experience of faculty and residents with workplace-based assessment tools shown in prior studies can be overcome, at least in part, when specific implementation strategies are pursued. The findings provide guidance for future research and implementation efforts.