Open AccessVirtual physical assessment training during the COVID-19 pandemic - student pharmacists’ performance & perceptions
Author(s) -
Josephine P. Aranda,
Shawn Smith,
Han Nguyen,
Christina Jap,
Hyma Gogineni
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
pharmacy education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.198
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1477-2701
pISSN - 1560-2214
DOI - 10.46542/pe.2020.202.165173
Subject(s) - practicum , summative assessment , pharmacy , medical education , set (abstract data type) , perception , covid-19 , pandemic , virtual learning environment , class (philosophy) , pharmacy practice , psychology , computer science , medicine , multimedia , mathematics education , nursing , formative assessment , artificial intelligence , disease , pathology , neuroscience , infectious disease (medical specialty) , programming language
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted pharmacy education and caused significant transformation in student learning and assessment. Pharmacy PA faculty transformed the traditional PA teaching and practicum to virtual utilising Zoom. PA practicum consists of demonstration of a set of short videos, followed by students identifying incorrect techniques, describing the correct technique, and the purpose of the specific PA skill. After completion of the virtual PA practicum examination, students were invited to complete a 20-item survey about their perceptions. Most students preferred blended learning (56.8%) format over in-class, even though students performed significantly better on the traditional practicum (0.89+0.13) rather than the virtual (0.84+0.11). Hands-on skills are an integral part to PA instruction and learning, making innovations in virtual delivery and assessment vital for student success. This pandemic gave opportunities to explore curricular innovations as our virtual formats provided alternative approaches to review and summative assessment of PA.