Design guidelines for assessing students' interprofessional competencies in healthcare education: a consensus study

Introduction Healthcare systems require healthcare professionals and students educated in an interprofessional (IP) context. Well-designed assessments are needed to evaluate whether students have developed IP competencies, but we currently lack evidence-informed guidelines to create them. This study aims to provide guidelines for the assessment of IP competencies in healthcare education. Methods A qualitative consensus study was conducted to establish guidelines for the design of IP assessments using the nominal group technique. First, five expert groups (IP experts, patients, educational scientists, teachers, and students) were asked to discuss design guidelines for IP assessment and reach intra-group consensus. Second, one heterogeneous inter-group meeting was organized to reach a consensus among the expert groups on IP assessment guidelines. Results This study yielded a comprehensive set of 26 guidelines to help design performance assessments for IP education: ten guidelines for both the IP assessment tasks and the IP assessors and six guidelines for the IP assessment procedures. Discussion The results showed that IP assessment is complex and, compared to mono-professional assessment, high-quality IP assessments require additional elements such as multiple IP products and processes to be assessed, an IP pool of assessors, and assessment procedures in which standards are included for the IP collaboration process as well as individual contributions. The guidelines are based on expert knowledge and experience, but an important next step is to test these design guidelines in educational practice.