Many-Facet Rasch Analysis of Standardized Patient Ratings of Students’ Humanistic Competence on a Medical Licensure Examination

• In Event: Measuring the Noncognitive Traits of Students in the Professions

Abstract

Global Patient Assessment (GPA) is a humanistic clinical skills assessment tool utilized in a high-stake medical licensure examination. Standardized patients (SPs) utilized the GPA tool to rate examinee’s competence on physician-patient communication, interpersonal skills, and professionalism. The present study investigates the function of the GPA rating scale and the effects of SP raters and SP/case characteristics on SP ratings through Many-Facet Rasch Measurement (MFRM). 39,882 GPA ratings from the 2010-11 testing cycle were analyzed. It was found that SP raters showed different severity in ratings, could overall differentiate the six GPA traits that displayed different difficulty, utilized a reasonable range of the scale. The current 9-point scale had good separation reliability at .94.

Authors

• Xiuyuan Zhang, The College Board

• William L. Roberts, National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners