The Use of Video Vignettes to Measure Health Worker Knowledge. Evidence from Burkina Faso

The quality of care is a crucial determinant of good health outcomes, but is difficult to measure. Survey vignettes are a standard approach to measuring medical knowledge among health care providers. Thinking that written vignettes or knowledge tests may be too removed from clinical practice, particularly where “learning by doing” may be an important form of training, we developed a new type of provider vignette using videos presenting a patient with maternal/early childhood symptoms visiting the clinic. We tested these video vignettes with current and future (students) health professionals in Burkina Faso. Participants indicated that the cases used were interesting, understandable and common. Results displayed a substantial dispersion in performance, consistent with expectations. Participants who are expected to perform better, based on ex ante criteria such as their training (medical doctors vs. nurses and midwives) or their experience (health professionals vs. students), actually did perform better. The video vignettes can easily be embedded in computers, tablets and smart phones; they are a convenient tool to measure provider knowledge; and they are cost-effective instruction and testing tools