Evaluation of Mini Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEX) for post-graduate students in Prosthodontics: Student and Faculty Perceptions

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Background: The mini Clinical Evaluation Exercise or mini-CEX is method for simultaneously assessing the clinical skills of trainees and offering them feedback on their performance. Although it is a well established method of assessment for medical residents, in dental education are very scanty especially in post-graduate education.The aim of this study was to train the faculty for the use of Mini CEX in training post-graduate students in Prosthodontics and evaluate their perceptions regarding this novel assessment method. Methodology: Faculty training was carried out by conducting a workshop consisting of pre-test, video demonstration, small group discussion and post-test. Total 5 faculty members evaluated 12 postgraduate students in seven competency domains on 9 point likert scale on standard miniCEX form. Focused group discussion was carried out with students and faculty to evaluate their perceptions regarding the exercise. Results: there was a statistically significant improvement in cognitive knowledge by comparing the pretest and posttest results (7 ± 4 and 17 ± 2 respectively, p<0.0001)Total 82 encounters were recorded by 5 faculty members and 12 postgraduate students. All seven competencies were evaluated. Mean time for observing students by evaluator was 15.25 min and evaluator giving feedback was 11.20 min. Students ratings for satisfaction with the format (mean) were 8.34 and evaluator 7.23. Main themes emerging from focus group discussions were constructive feedback, objectivity and useful for exam preparation. Conclusions: Data from this study supports the use of mini CEX for post-graduate training in Prosthodontics. It is a cost effective way of assessing and giving constructive feedback to the students in structured manner. Further studies in different settings are needed to generalize its use in routine post-graduate training.