Cincinnati Eye Institute
Background: Refractometry a skill that is difficult for beginners to learn and challenging for the evaluators to assess. A well-constructed rubric can provide guidance as a training tool to the novice refractionist and as an assessment tool to the instructor.
Purpose: A new rubric was created to provide clinical educators with a content-valid, internationally-standardized rubric to teach and assess competency in subjective refractometry.
Methods: A panel of seven international content experts participated in a qualitative research study to create a distance vision subjective manifest refractometry rubric by identifying the key steps of the procedure, determining performance levels of competency, and creating behavioral descriptors for each procedural step and level of competency. The rubric was reviewed by a total of 32 international subject-matter experts from 18 countries and from various roles, to ensure content validity.
Results: This internationally-standardized rubric is a content-valid competency assessment tool that could be applied globally to teach and assess distance vision manifest subjective refractions.
Conclusions: It was important to collaborate with international subject-matter experts to develop a rubric that was specific enough to ensure proper steps are being followed, yet flexible enough in the wording that is can be adapted to regional/local methods.
Additional rubrics for near vision refraction, cycloplegic refraction, and other ophthalmic skills are being considered.
