Background

Documentation of teaching outcomes is now commonly expected in academic accreditation self-studies, especially of professional schools that are examined by professional practice bodies as part of their effort to develop their field. Outcomes defined beyond the teaching setting where professional practice occurs are increasingly being added to traditional means and are also expected to also drive curriculum and assessment. Pharmacy is one of those professions with its accreditation standards defined and monitored by a body of professional practitioners, the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE). Thus, after two years of development, the University of Kansas School of Pharmacy is combining live performance assessment with its traditional core science assessment, all in the same exam, and presenting the results for decision-makers to use as evidence to justify why particular students should or should not be passed on to professional practice.

Implementation

The practice-based portion of Pharmacy's criterion assessment exam consists of standardized clients in 12 testing stations representing different clinical or management problems. Difficulty is scaled to each student's level of preparation. The cases standardized clients represent are patterned from post-college pharmacy practice with the involvement of practicing pharmacists. They are constructed to be as authentic as possible in simulation, and to be valid and reliable by the highest assessment standards. The exam involves five steps:

1. Prequel case where students answer a ten-item quiz based on a written description,

2. Instructions which prepare students for the live-action encounter,

3. Encounter with a standardized client,

4. Ten-question quiz over the content and knowledge covered in the encounter, and

5. Review period in which the standardized client leads the student to reflect on the encounter just concluded.

Student Performance

Students receive feedback about exam results in two ways, one informational and the other experiential:

1. Information in the form of individual summary scores are sent to individual students. They learn their results as a percent of all points available.

2. The recent experience with a realistic client is the basis for a reflection discussion on what happened and could be improved.

Reflections

It is intended that the standardized client program will become a capstone experience within the School of Pharmacy; where students’ progress through the program is dependent on their successful demonstration of professional competency in both the scientific and clinical/counseling domains of practice. If the assessment can be refined to provide additional detailed information about where students struggle within the different domains of professional competency, then the School of Pharmacy can better prepare its students for their first clerkship and subsequent professional service in a fast-growing and ever-changing field.