Online assessment of medical students’ communication competence in patient encounters: Validation of the VA-MeCo situational judgement test

The results support that MCC can be validly measured using the VA-MeCo. The CFA results align with theory and previous studies that proposed three distinguishable dimensions of MCC. The findings on convergent and discriminant validity demonstrate that the test measures MCC as a specific construct that is positively related to patient-interaction; moreover, it can be distinguished from related but more generic constructs (e.g., social competence) and is not overly confounded with construct-irrelevant traits (e.g., intelligence). Notwithstanding the need for further validation, the results indicate that the VA-MeCo is a useful test for assessing MCC in medical education.