Objectives: Since their introduction, workplace-based assessments (WBAs) have proliferated throughout postgraduate medical education. Previous reviews have identified mixed findings regarding WBAs' effectiveness, but have not considered the importance of user-tool-context interactions. The present review was conducted to address this gap by generating a thematic overview of factors important to the acceptability, effectiveness and utility of WBAs in postgraduate medical education. Method: This review utilised a hermeneutic cycle for analysis of the literature. Four databases were searched to identify articles pertaining to WBAs in postgraduate medical education from the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries. Over the course of three rounds, 30 published articles were thematically analysed in an iterative fashion to deeply engage with the literature in order to answer three scoping questions concerning acceptability, effectiveness and assessment training. As each round was coded, themes were refined and questions added until saturation was reached. Results: Stakeholders value WBAs for permitting assessment of trainees' performance in an authentic context. Negative perceptions of WBAs stem from misuse due to low assessment literacy, disagreement with definitions and frameworks, and inadequate summative use of WBAs. Effectiveness is influenced by user (eg, engagement and assessment literacy) and tool attributes (eg, definitions and scales), but most fundamentally by user-tool-context interactions, particularly trainee-assessor relationships. Assessors' assessment literacy must be combined with cultural and administrative factors in organisations and the broader medical discipline. Conclusions: The pivotal determinants of WBAs' effectiveness and utility are the user-tool-context interactions. From the identified themes, we present 12 lessons learned regarding users, tools and contexts to maximise WBA utility, including the separation of formative and summative WBA assessors, use of maximally useful scales, and instituting measures to reduce competitive demands.

Vitamin D supplementation of vitamin D deficient pregnant women prevents neonatal vitamin D deficiency.

Purpose Postgraduate medical trainees experience high rates of burnout; however, inconsistencies in definitions of burnout characterize this literature. The authors conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis examining burnout levels and patterns in postgraduate medical trainees, using a continuous conceptualization of burnout, consistent with the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) framework. Method The authors searched 5 electronic databases (Cochrane Library, Embase, ERIC, Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid PsycINFO) between January 1981 and July 2019 for studies reporting postgraduate medical trainees’ burnout levels using the MBI-Human Services Survey. They examined study reporting quality using the QualSyst quality appraisal tool and calculated standardized mean differences (Hedges’ g), comparing trainees’ data with MBI norms for medicine and the overall population using a random effects model. They explored between-study heterogeneity using subgroup analyses (i.e., by training level and specialty). Finally, they studied the combined contribution of these 2 variables (and year of study publication) to burnout levels, using meta-regression. Results The authors identified 2,978 citations and included 89 independent studies in their review. They pooled the data for the 18,509 postgraduate trainees included in these studies for the meta-analyses. Reporting quality was generally high across the included studies. The meta-analyses revealed higher burnout levels among trainees compared with medicine and overall population norms, particularly for the depersonalization subscale. The authors also identified statistically significant differences between nonsurgical and surgical registrars (specialty trainees), with trainees from 12 individual specialties exhibiting unique burnout patterns. Conclusions There is a need to reduce and prevent burnout early in medical training. Given the differences in burnout levels and patterns across specialties, interventions must focus on the unique patterns exhibited by each specialty in the target population using a multidimensional approach. Standardizing the definition of burnout in accordance with the MBI framework will facilitate progression of this work.

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BackgroundVitamin B12 deficiency is prevalent in many countries of origin of refugees. Using a threshold of 5% above which a prevalence of low Vitamin B12 is indicative of a population health problem, we hypothesised that Vitamin B12 deficiency exceeds this threshold among newly-arrived refugees resettling in Australia, and is higher among women due to their increased risk of food insecurity. This paper reports Vitamin B12 levels in a large cohort of newly arrived refugees in five Australian states and territories.MethodsIn a cross-sectional descriptive study, we collected Vitamin B12, folate and haematological indices on all refugees (n = 916; response rate 94% of eligible population) who had been in Australia for less than one year, and attended one of the collaborating health services between July 2010 and July 2011.Results16.5% of participants had Vitamin B12 deficiency (<150 pmol/L). One-third of participants from Iran and Bhutan, and one-quarter of participants from Afghanistan had Vitamin B12 deficiency. Contrary to our hypothesis, low Vitamin B12 levels were more prevalent in males than females. A higher prevalence of low Vitamin B12 was also reported in older age groups in some countries. The sensitivity of macrocytosis in detecting Vitamin B12 deficiency was only 4.6%.ConclusionVitamin B12 deficiency is an important population health issue in newly-arrived refugees from many countries. All newly-arrived refugees should be tested for Vitamin B12 deficiency. Ongoing research should investigate causes, treatment, and ways to mitigate food insecurity, and the contribution of such measures to enhancing the health of the refugee communities.

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E ntrustable professional activities (EPAs) were developed in response to the shift in medical education toward competency-based assessment. 1,2 Scientific knowledge has been the centre of medical training since the 1910 Flexner report on medical education in North America, 3 and the dominant aim has subsequently been to integrate scientific practice and findings into the curricula of university medical schools. Toward the end of the 20th century, a change in thinking required doctors to possess not only technical expertise and medical knowledge, but also the ability to work effectively in teams and to navigate complex health care systems. 4 This shift has been complemented in a variety of contexts by developing competencybased frameworks for training and assessing medical students 5 and by replacing traditional final and barrier testing with longitudinal and programmatic assessment. 6 AbstractObjective: To assess whether entrustment levels for junior trainees with respect to entrustable professional activities (EPAs) increase over time; whether entrustment levels for senior trainees are higher than for junior trainees; and whether self-assessment of entrustment levels by senior trainees more closely matches supervisor assessment than self-assessment by junior trainees.Design, setting, participants: Observational study of 130 junior and 153 senior community-based general practice trainees in South Australia, 2017. Main outcome measures:Differences in entrustment levels between junior and senior trainees; change in entrustment levels for junior trainees over 9 months; concordance of supervisor and trainee assessment of entrustment level over 9 months.Results: Senior trainees were 2.1 (95% CI, 1.66-2.58) to 3.7 times (95% CI, 2.60-5.28) as likely as junior trainees to be entrusted with performing clinical EPAs without supervision. The proportion of EPAs with which junior trainees were entrusted to perform unsupervised increased from 26% at 3 months to 35% at 6 months (rate ratio [RR], 1.37; 95% CI; 1.15-1.63), to 50% at 9 months (RR, 1.92; 95% CI, 1.64-2.26), and 69% at 12 months (RR, 2.68; 95% CI; 2.32-3.12). At 3 months, the mean differences in entrustment ratings between supervisors and trainees was 5.5 points (SD, 6.6 points) for junior trainees and 2.93 points (SD, 2.8 points) for senior trainees (P < 0.001). Conclusions:EPAs are valid assessment tools in a workplace-based training environment.The known: Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) have a strong theoretical basis, and can be employed to assess the quality of care provided by medical trainees.The new: Entrustment levels for both clinical and non-clinical tasks were higher for senior than for junior trainees, levels of entrustment for junior trainees increased over 9 months of training, and the concordance of self-assessment of entrustment level with supervisor assessments was greater for senior trainees than junior trainees.The implications: EPAs are valuable tools for assessing the performance of general practice trainees in providing care for ...

H. pylori infection is common among newly arrived refugees. The long latency of infection to development of complications and the availability of testing and relatively effective eradication regimens all add weight to a decision to screen in this population.