Presenter:
George Pachev
Authors:
Pachev, G., Dhaliwal, N., and Dammert, M.
Poster Abstract:
In the UBC Entry-to-Practice PharmD Program, student readiness for practicum is assessed with Integrated Comprehensive Exams (ICE) at the end of each term. Despite that ICEs are developed by teaching faculty and experiential educators, students identified as “ready for practicum” by ICE, continue to be judged as “not ready” by preceptors. The goal of this study was to understand educators’ conceptions of what defines the “not ready” student. The research question was purposefully framed in the negative, to avoid restating the conceptions of “ready” for practicum found in the curriculum documentation.
Qualitative interviews were conducted with faculty educators involved in the development of the ICE. The interviewees were asked about the characteristics associated with judging a student to be “not ready,” how easy these characteristics would trigger the judgment, and how identifiable and malleable they would be. Phenomenography was employed to analyze the data.
Participants described the challenges of “not ready” students as related to two broad categories: professionalism/attitudes and knowledge/skill. The outcome space also included characteristics like difficulties with reconciling feedback, lack of specific skills, and presence of wellbeing challenges. Characteristics judged as more severe, like rigid mental-set or failure to reconcile feedback, were also judged as more difficult to identify and less responsive to remediation.
This study demonstrated that some features of the “not ready” student would not be easily measured by exams such as the ICE. For future research, describing the conceptions of preceptors would help inform and improve the assessment program.
