Pharmacy OSCEs and Competency-based Assessments

Book excerpt: Patient safety is now a very strong focus of pharmacy degrees. Competency-based evaluations of pharmacy students using simulated assessments including Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) and Criterion Referenced Assessments (CRAs) are increasingly commonplace. These are designed to simulate aspects of real-life pharmacy practice in order to train students to integrate their knowledge of medicinal chemistry, pharmaceutics, therapeutics, legislation, clinical skills, numeracy, communication and empathy, and to test a student's ability to provide safe and effective patient care. This book provides a unique resource to support students and trainers in developing and practising these essential skills. It is designed as a useful resource for undergraduate students, clinical tutors and those involved in teaching students on pharmacy degree courses. Format OSCE outline Format (written/interactive) Level of difficulty Time limit Props supplied (e.g. BNF) Competencies tested Station task Model Answers and sample marking schemes Tips - Short chapter introductions about how to tackle the type of problems encountered in the chapter. - Station examples to test your ability to integrate knowledge and skills. - Stations written in detail so that you can practise and then check or score performance against model answers. - Examples of competency-based assessments designed to assess the level of integration between science and practice.