Fairness Principle in Accreditation of Health Specialists: The Differential Item Functioning Method

Tatyana V Semenova,Marina B Chelyshkova,Natalia N Naydenova,Zhanna M Sizova,Victoria V Narbut,Alfiya R Masalimova

doi:10.29333/ejmste/108485

Abstract

The main purpose of this article is to present a Differential Item Functioning method of item analysis. It is designed to minimize the discriminatory effect of individual items in the accreditation of graduates of medical universities with different training programs. The one-parameter Item Response Theory model is used to align graduates’ rights in accreditation. The measure of the difference in the location of the item characteristic curves constructed for different graduates’ samples is presented using the difficulty estimates. For the development of the methodology, a number of research questions are posed, the solution of which made it possible to analyze the items bias for the “Polyclinic” discipline and the range of item difficulties from 1.5 to 2, 5 logits. The item bank was cleaned and an interpretation of decisions on items release and correction for the cases of different arrangement of their characteristic curves was presented.

Highlights

Starting in 2016, large-scale assessment has been launched in Russia to introduce the autonomous procedure for admitting health professionals to occupational activities on the basis of their accreditation, which is understood as a procedure for determining the readiness of the received medical or pharmaceutical education persons to the implementation of an independent professional activity at a certain position
Unlike previously conducted similar studies, where groups of individuals are distinguished by gender or ethnicity, this article deals with the problem of violation of individuals rights in graduate accreditation among universities with various educational programs
Item 23 should be removed from the item bank for accrediting health care professionals

Summary

Introduction

Starting in 2016, large-scale assessment has been launched in Russia to introduce the autonomous procedure for admitting health professionals to occupational activities on the basis of their accreditation, which is understood as a procedure for determining the readiness of the received medical or pharmaceutical education persons to the implementation of an independent professional activity at a certain position. The problem of ensuring the equal rights of individuals in mass assessment procedures is solved by many test services, including in comparative international studies of the education quality (Crocker & Algina, 2010; Naydenova, Tagunova & Sukhin, 2018; Tumeneva & Valdman, 2012; Yazdani et al, 2018). The variability of the programs is significantly increased by the new Federal State Educational Standards of the third generation, functioning in Russia today and opening up wide opportunities for building individual learning paths. In this regard, the problem considered in the article is highly relevant for improving the quality of medical education in Russia.

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Conclusion