Mickleborough Tim, Tait Glendon R, Mylopoulos Maria, Kulasegaram Kulamakan Mahan
Department of Paediatrics, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The Wilson Centre, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Perspect Med Educ. 2025 Aug 13;14(1):493-503. doi: 10.5334/pme.1949. eCollection 2025.
Competency committees (CCs) are considered mandatory in competency-based medical education. There remains insufficient research to guide programs in optimizing the work of CCs especially in the undergraduate context. In order to address this gap, the functioning of an undergraduate CC is examined using the construct of a shared mental model (SMM) to explore factors and context that inform a holistic review of performance.
A qualitative exploratory study was conducted. Using purposive sampling, 10 members of a Student Progress Committee (SPC) participated in 60-minute, semi-structured interviews (April 2022 to June 2023). An abductive thematic analysis approach generated themes which were then mapped onto a mental model construct. This heuristic helped construct and visualize the inner workings of a SMM as a holistic decision-making process that operates on manipulating multiple data inputs (quantitative and qualitative) in order to generate robust outcomes.
SPC members shared similar expectations of the task at hand while having multiple and conflicting perspectives about inputs important for decision making. Members grappled with what they perceived as a subjective process but agreed that having principles specific to holistic decision making can generate robust outcomes. Diversity of group membership was essential for minimizing member bias and group conformity in decision making.
This new understanding of how CCs operate at the undergraduate level can inform the SPC and guide its members in their quality improvement efforts and inform broader program-wide improvement, locally; moreover, it may contribute to the ongoing improvement of CCs in other settings.
能力委员会（CCs）在基于能力的医学教育中被认为是必不可少的。然而，目前仍缺乏足够的研究来指导相关项目优化能力委员会的工作，尤其是在本科教育背景下。为了填补这一空白，本研究运用共享心智模型（SMM）的构建来审视本科能力委员会的运作情况，以探索有助于全面评估表现的因素和背景。
开展了一项定性探索性研究。采用目的抽样法，学生进步委员会（SPC）的10名成员参与了时长60分钟的半结构化访谈（2022年4月至2023年6月）。采用归纳式主题分析法得出主题，然后将这些主题映射到一个心智模型构建上。这种启发式方法有助于构建并可视化共享心智模型的内部运作，将其视为一个整体决策过程，该过程通过处理多个数据输入（定量和定性）来产生可靠的结果。
学生进步委员会成员对手头任务有着相似的期望，但在对决策重要的输入方面存在多种相互冲突的观点。成员们努力应对他们所认为的主观过程，但一致认为拥有特定于整体决策的原则可以产生可靠的结果。成员构成的多样性对于在决策中尽量减少成员偏见和群体一致性至关重要。
这种对本科层面能力委员会运作方式的新理解可以为学生进步委员会提供信息，指导其成员进行质量改进工作，并为当地更广泛的项目改进提供信息；此外，它可能有助于其他环境中能力委员会的持续改进。
