Piloting an Objective Structured Clinical Examination to Evaluate the Clinical Competency of Pre‐Registration Pharmacists

Abstract

Objectives: The primary aim of the study was to pilot the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) as a method of evaluating the clinical competency of pre-registration pharmacists trained in Brisbane and nearby hospitals. A secondary aim was to demonstrate that this model of assessment is transferable when used to evaluate preregistration pharmacists from the UK. Method: A 15-workstation OSCE was adapted from an examination used by the South Thames Clinical Pharmacy Network in the UK. The workstations were reviewed and updated to ensure their appropriateness to clinical pharmacy practice in Australia by a group of practising pharmacists and academics. The OSCE was first completed by pre-registration pharmacists from Brisbane and nearby hospitals in October 1998 (QLD98) and then in November 1999 (QLD99). A sample of pre-registration students from the UK who completed the same OSCE in 1998 (UK98) was used as the comparator group. Results: The OSCEs were completed by 10 students in 1998 (QLD98) and 13 in 1999 (QLD99). These results were compared with 52 students who completed the OSCEs in the UK in 1998 (UK98). In general, the students performed well in the 'medication focused' activities such as counselling, calculations and chart review. However, they were less successful in more holistic tasks such as drug history taking, information retrieval from medical notes and interpretive calculations. Conclusion: Having successfully piloted the OSCE model it was determined that the method is feasible to administer when students can be brought to an assessment centre. We recommend that the OSCE be considered a key component of assessing clinical competency as part of the registration requirements for pre-registration pharmacists in Australia.

Evaluating the impact of a pre-rotation workshop on student preparation for clinical advanced pharmacy practice experiences

“…The OSCE was a standardized scenario reflecting a commonly encountered problem on a clinical rotation. This scenario focused more on professional skills emphasized in the workshop than on specialized knowledge and was chosen as the assessment tool due to its simulation of a clinical rotation interventions and integration of all clinical skills included in the PRW 7,8,9. Two OSCE cases were used in this study: case 1 was used in the experimental group prior to PRW and case 2 was used in the experimental and control groups prior to and following the year of APPE rotations.…”

What does advanced practice mean to Australian paediatric pharmacists? A focus group study

“…[23,30] There were differences of opinion related to OSCEs, although these have been successfully used in formative and summative assessments in medicine and pharmacy for undergraduate and postgraduate students. [31,32] Pharmacists who had personal experience with OSCEs were comfortable with their use in assessment, whereas more experienced pharmacists believed that OSCEs would only assess clinical pharmacy skills rather than the broader components of advanced practice. Similar views have been expressed in medicine, where more experienced physicians approach patient care in a 'non-linear fashion' unsuitable for evaluation via OSCE.…”

Improvement in Pharmacist's Performance Facilitated by an Adapted Competency‐Based General Level Framework

“…8 Only 50% of Australian pharmacists at registration, could demonstrate that they were competent in half of the 13 objective structured clinical examinations. 9 George Miller, father of medical education, introduced a framework (Miller's Pyramid) for assessing clinical competence. 10 On the bottom level of the pyramid is 'knowledge' (knows), then 'competence' (knows how), 'performance' (shows how) and 'action' (does).…”