The association between Situational Judgement Test (SJT) scores and professionalism concerns in undergraduate medical education

Abstract

Introduction: Situational judgement tests (SJTs) are widely used in selecting medical students and doctors. Emerging evidence suggests SJTs are capable of testing an individual’s ability to respond to role-relevant professionalism scenarios, however, evidence is lacking for their use in identifying students with concerning professional behaviours.This study aimed to determine the association between medical student professionalism-based SJT scores and recorded professionalism concerns during training.Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted utilising SJT scores from second-year medical students and occurrences of student professionalism concerns. Concerns were reviewed and mapped to General Medical Council standards. Multivariate logistic regression was used to determine associations between SJT scores and professionalism concerns.Results: 247 students were included in the study. For every point increase in SJT score, students were 10% less likely to have multiple professionalism concerns [OR (95% CI) 0.90 (0.83–0.97); p = .007].Students scoring below 1 and 2 standard deviations from the mean score were 4 and 11-times more likely to have multiple concerns [OR (95% CI) 4.52 (1.12–18.25); p = .034] and [OR (95% CI) 11.45 (1.72–76.15); p = .012].Conclusion: Lower SJT scores were significantly associated with an increased risk of professionalism concerns. These findings support the potential for SJT exams to identify medical students that may require closer supervision and remediation during undergraduate education.