Competency-based medical education (CBME), an educational paradigm that prioritizes development of measurable skills over time in training, is currently being instituted across North American residency training programs. A fundamental goal of CBME is entrustment – the process whereby supervisors come to trust trainees to perform specific tasks without supervision. How entrustment decisions are made with respect to endoscopic training has not been elucidated.

We aimed to: (1) identify the factors trainers consider in making endoscopic entrustment decisions and (2) characterize this entrustment decision-making process.

A qualitative, interview-based study was conducted using a constructivist grounded theory approach. A purposive sample of endoscopic trainers from across North America were recruited with representation from adult and pediatric gastroenterology, general surgery, and family medicine. Consenting trainers undertook audio-recorded, semi-structured interviews designed to elicit how they make endoscopic entrustment decisions and the factors they consider in making these decisions. Interview transcripts were analyzed using constant comparison, and themes were identified iteratively, working toward an explanatory framework that highlighted relationships among themes. Recruitment continued alongside analysis until theoretical saturation, determined as the point at which no new insights arose from the data.

Twenty-three trainer interviews were conducted, comprising 8 (34.8%) with adult gastroenterologists, 7 (30.4%) with general surgeons, 6 (26.1%) with pediatric gastroenterologists, and 2 (8.7%) with family physicians. Of those interviewed, 10 (43.5%) practiced in Canada and 13 (56.5%) practiced in the United States. Interviewees conceptualized entrustment as a continuum rather than a binary (yes/no) decision. Entrustment decision-making was found to be a complex process, involving factors related to the: (1) trainee (insight into their own abilities, technical skills, nontechnical skills); (2) trainer (perceived self-competence, disposition, prioritization of trainee learning relative to competing demands); (3) trainer-trainee relationship (duration of exposure); (4) patient (acuity, comorbidity, comfort); (5) procedure (complexity); and (6) environment (time constraints, equipment, presence of anesthesiologist). These factors directly and indirectly contributed to the themes of trainee readiness, trainer comfort, and patient safety, which collectively predicted endoscopic entrustment decisions.

Entrustment in endoscopic training is a complex process incorporating multiple factors. Clarification of this process and identification of predictive factors informs the development of endoscopic assessment tools and curricula uniquely suited to CBME.

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