ReviewPerspectives on medical education2021
Where the rubber meets the road - An integrative review of programmatic assessment in health care professions education.
Review in Perspectives on medical education, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Assessment practices for dietetic students: An updated systematic review (2017-2024).Nutrition & dietetics : the journal of the Dietitians Association of Australia · 2025Pooled it
- Programmatic assessment in undergraduate diagnostic radiography education: a conceptual framework informed by the Australian context.Annals of medicine · 2026Review
- Development and Clinical Validation of an Entrustable Professional Activities Framework for Respiratory Nurses: A Longitudinal Workplace-Based Study.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Assessing Clinical Competence of Postgraduate Dental Specialty Trainees: A Scoping Review.European journal of dental education : official journal of the Association for Dental Education in Europe · 2026Article
- Assessment of clinical pharmacology and competence during medicine clerkships.British journal of clinical pharmacology · 2026Review
- Diagnosing Integrated Clinical Performance: A Practical Educational Framework for High-Stakes Clinical Assessment.Cureus · 2026Review
- Education note: cultivating assessment and feedback for learning in our training hospital.Physical and engineering sciences in medicine · 2026Article
- CAT and TEAM for Longitudinal 360-Degree Assessment in Simulation and Clinical Training.Journal of graduate medical education · 2026Article
- Implementation of entrustable professional activities for interns within the new Australian National Framework: a pilot study using action-research to explore utility, and clarify challenges and enablers.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- Reimagining pharmacology education.Pharmacological reviews · 2026Review
- The introduction of workplace-based assessment into postgraduate medical training in South Africa: trainee perspectives.BMC medical education · 2026Article
- An evaluation of programmatic assessment across health professions education using contribution analysis.Advances in health sciences education : theory and practice · 2026Article
- No Free Lunch in Competency-Based Health Professions Education: Exploring Trade-Offs, Value, and Shared Investment in Health Professions Education.Perspectives on medical education · 2026Article
- Curriculum evolution and documentary evidence of competency alignment in a hospital-embedded undergraduate health services and management programme in China: a longitudinal case study.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Assessment Fit for (More Than One) Purpose? Reconciling the Dual Purposes of Assessments in Competency-Based Health Professions Education.Perspectives on medical education · 2026Article
- Navigating Medical Curriculum Renewal: Faculty Experiences of Implementing a Renewed Assessment Plan Through the Lens of Change Theory.Medical science educator · 2025Article
- Evidence-informed propositions for a whole-of-program assessment approach.Nutrition & dietetics : the journal of the Dietitians Association of Australia · 2025Article
- Reduced Test Anxiety Among Medical Students in an Extremely Low-Stakes Examination.Medical science educator · 2025Article
- Faculty development for undergraduate student programmatic assessment: a Brazilian multi-centered longitudinal study.BMC medical education · 2025Article
- Support for the Struggling Learner in Urology.Current urology reports · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionProgrammatic assessment was introduced as an approach to design assessment programmes with the aim to simultaneously optimize the decision-making and learning function of assessment. An integrative review was conducted to review and synthesize results from studies investigating programmatic assessment in health care professions education in practice.
methodsThe authors systematically searched PubMed, Web of Science, and ERIC to identify studies published since 2005 that reported empirical data on programmatic assessment. Characteristics of the included studies were extracted and synthesized, using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.
resultsTwenty-seven studies were included, which used quantitative methods (n = 10), qualitative methods (n = 12) or mixed methods (n = 5). Most studies were conducted in clinical settings (77.8%). Programmatic assessment was found to enable meaningful triangulation for robust decision-making and used as a catalyst for learning. However, several problems were identified, including overload in assessment information and the associated workload, counterproductive impact of using strict requirements and summative signals, lack of a shared understanding of the nature and purpose of programmatic assessment, and lack of supportive interpersonal relationships. Thematic analysis revealed that the success and challenges of programmatic assessment were best understood by the interplay between quantity and quality of assessment information, and the influence of social and personal aspects on assessment perceptions.
conclusionAlthough some of the evidence may seem compelling to support the effectiveness of programmatic assessment in practice, tensions will emerge when simultaneously stimulating the development of competencies and assessing its result. The identified factors and inferred strategies provide guidance for navigating these tensions.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.