Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies 2016; 1(1): 1-14 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/tecs doi: 10.11648/j.tecs.20160101.11 Interns’ Perceived Competency Levels with Respect to the Medical Expert Role in Different Clinical Disciplines Ronald Omenge Obwoge 1, * , Willem de Grave 2 1 Department of Community Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, Egerton University, Nakuru, Kenya 2 Department of Educational Development & Research, Medical Faculty, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands Email address: obwogeo@yahoo.com (R. O. Obwoge) * Corresponding author To cite this article: Ronald Omenge Obwoge, Willem de Grave. Interns’ Perceived Competency Levels with Respect to the Medical Expert Role in Different Clinical Disciplines. Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies. Vol. 1, No. 1, 2016, pp. 1-14. doi: 10.11648/j.tecs.20160101.11 Received: August 10, 2016; Accepted: August 19, 2016; Published: September 12, 2016 Abstract: Competency assessment in the health professions usually serves many purposes including educational, employment-related, and regulatory ones, including aspects of professional competence and protection of the public. Professional bodies and training institutions conduct competency assessments to assess and certify professionals. The main aim of this study is to protect the public by ascertaining whether there is a need for educational interventions by assessing the existing competency levels of clinical officers, and identifying deficiencies with regard to those competencies. Training institutions, Clinical Officers Council and practicing clinical officers can use these results as immediate and future remedies for their curricula and programmes, so that the required competency levels can be achieved. Sixty four (64) interns completed a questionnaire about their self-perceived competency level(s) on various discipline-related tasks. The study population consisted of interns who were graduates of Kenya Medical Training College (45) and Egerton University (19) and who were practicing in accredited interns training hospitals. A self administered questionnaire was used to elicit clinical officer interns’ self perceived competencies in their medical expert role. This questionnaire was constructed based on the CanMEDS framework and on guidelines for clinical officer interns’ assessment form by Clinical officers Council. A list of tasks in specialties of medicine, paediatrics, surgery, and gynaecology and obstetrics were included in the questionnaire to ensure content-related evidence of validity. This survey reports on the level of competency among clinical officers (interns) in relation to the medical expert role during their clinical rotations, reflecting the competency levels relating to various tasks relating to the specialties of the clinical officers of the two selected training institutions (Kenya). The selected institutions are Egerton University and Kenya Medical Training College. The survey focuses on the CO interns’ levels of competency in medical specialties (medicine, surgery, pediatrics, and Gynecology and Obstetrics). By answering the main question for CO interns” Sincerely rate yourself in your daily performance in the following areas by circling the number that you feel best represents your competence”. The study results shows that CO interns from Kenya medical training college and Egerton University considered themselves to have adequate competency levels for most tasks, with a few exceptions, such as excision of superficial lesions e.g. ganglion, inserting and removing contraceptive devices e.g. coil tasks. These tasks represent 6.8% of all the cases rated. Keywords: Competency, Expert Role, Assessment 1. Introduction 1.1. Background Information In this era of accountability the public expects clinicians to be competent. However, the question arises, is it possible for a clinician to be equally competent in each and every task? Due to the current explosion of technical knowledge practitioners are required to keep abreast of new technologies and information, both in the common core and in more specialized practice. Since medicine is a multifaceted profession it does not seem to be reasonable to expect medical professionals to attain the same levels of competence in all the tasks or