Juan Cendan*, UCF College of Medicine, Orlando, United States David Metcalf, UCF Institute for Simulation and Training, Orlando, United States Michael Eakins, UCF Institute for Simulation and Training, Orlando, United States Track: Practice Presentation Topic: Web 2.0-based medical education and learning Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Last modified: 2013-09-25

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Preparing the next generation of medical doctors involves more than transferring knowledge from instructor to student; developing professionalism is a critical piece of the puzzle. Students participate in numerous classes and activities throughout their medical education under various faculty members, thus presenting logistical challenges for tracking the soft skills required to train professional behaviors. The goal is persistent evaluation of students throughout the entirety of their education regardless of instructor, time, or activity; professionals, as well as students, are evaluated at all times. The capabilities of mobile devices have secured the possibility for accomplishing this in "near real-time" observation and reporting. The University of Central Florida's College of Medicine has developed an application that will support the faculty in medical student professionalism training. Each faculty member has a mobile device of some kind, such as a smart phone or tablet, from which they can access the application. Students are observed in every aspect of the educational environment at all times by any faculty member in order to create a truly pervasive assessment of professional behaviors. When an instructor witnesses a noteworthy action made by a student in a given situation, the user securely logs into the system, identifies the student, and creates an evaluation on the spot. Evaluations include a gold Pegasus (positive action), yellow card (warning), or red card (severe). After the selection is made, the faculty member is asked to associate the mark with one of the college's six key topics (and sub-topics) of professionalism. These performance attributes were previously identified by the college's curriculum committee through a task force exercise. Lastly, the faculty member may leave a comment further describing the event witnessed. Placing this application in the hands of supervisors enables evaluation to take place from multiple sources, creating a much more accurate representation of student growth. By allowing the faculty member to immediately document student action, the event is more likely to be reported as well as remain clear while the observation is "fresh". In addition to the person making the initial observation, all reports pass through a single source per designated group of students for review. This checkpoint creates an opportunity for a 3rd party to provide an unbiased approval over the reporting observer's evaluation. Students will be notified of any evaluation received and have the opportunity to appeal through standard means. The application will track every recorded observation for comprehensive student evaluation with the student, class year, specific evaluation mark, and individual categories of professionalism; reports are then generated for the desired data. An easy-to-access tool that is linked to desired behavioral attributes provides UCF College of Medicine with a resource that integrates into the current scaffolding for student professionalism development with minimal faculty or resource cost.