Standardized Assessment of Pharmacists' Patient Care Competencies:

Abstract

Assessing the ongoing competence of practicing health care professionals requires regulators to balance complex demands of governments and the public, as well as interests and concerns of practitioners. A proliferation of models has evolved across professions and jurisdictions. In this article, we report on a model utilizing standardized assessment using best-practice measurement techniques and methods for evaluation of ongoing (i.e., post-registration) clinical competencies in the profession of pharmacy in Ontario, Canada. This model involves categorization of the profession into an active patient-facing and non patient-facing register, implementation of a learning portfolio requirement to replace mandatory continuing education credit accumulation, and the use of standardized assessment techniques, such as a multiple-choice test of clinical knowledge and an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) of clinical reasoning and interpersonal skills. Lessons learned from the development, implementation and retrospective analysis of almost two decades of data from this program can provide regulators in diverse professions and different jurisdictions with tools for standardized assessment of patient care competencies.

An Authentic, Practice-Based Assessment as a Catalyst for Continuous Professional Development

“…A standardized simulated assessment, often referred to as an observed structured clinical examination (OSCE), is an assessment where a practitioner is exposed to a standardized case and is evaluated on their ability to provide patient care [1,10]. The Ontario College of Pharmacists used an OSCE as part of its quality assurance program for almost twenty years [10].…”

“…Although observed structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) can vary, there are generally a number of standardized cases, with trained standardized actors, and trained peer assessors evaluating the interactions [10]. The assessors use a standardized assessment tool with specified criteria.…”

“…The assessors use a standardized assessment tool with specified criteria. A psychometric process is used to determine an appropriate cut score to differentiate those that have the required competencies from those that require remediation [10].…”