Introduction

Workplace-based assessments (WBAs) and entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are essential components of competency-based medical education.1 2 They ensure that postgraduate medical trainees(PGMTs) develop the skills and knowledge necessary to function independently in their professional roles. In the field of clinical biochemistry (also called clinical chemistry or chemical pathology), WBAs and EPAs evaluate PGMTs’ practical and clinical skills, decision-making abilities, and professional behaviour in real-life clinical settings. This document comprehensively describes the implementation of WBAs and EPAs for chemical/clinical pathology/PGMTs, along with examples to illustrate the process.

The competencies of medical graduates and PGMTs are well documented in various models, such as CanMeds, the standards of the US Accreditation Council for General Medical Education and ‘Tomorrow’s Doctors’ in the UK by the General Medical Council.3 The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) introduced the concept of six specific areas of measurable performance, known as competencies, in 2002 through the ‘Outcomes Project’.4 5 The ‘Milestones’ were then implemented using the ACGME Next Accreditation System in 2013.6 Around the same time, Ten Cate originated the concept of EPA to allow faculty to make competency-based decisions about the level of supervision needed by trainees.7 Although competencies are more theoretical and describe personal qualities involving knowledge, skills, attitudes and values, both WBAs and EPAs are critical components of competency-based medical education. In clinical biochemistry, WBAs evaluate practical skills and clinical performance in real-world settings, while EPAs define essential tasks and responsibilities that a trainee should be entrusted to perform independently as they progress in their training.

EPAs are units of professional practice which can be described as responsibilities or discrete tasks that supervisors entrust trainees with at variable levels of supervisory confidence ranging from PGMT observation only to the PGMTs providing supervision to junior PGMTs.8 EPAs frame assessment …