Standardization of Course Plan and Design of Objective Structured Field Examination (OSFE) for the Assessment of Pharm.D. Student's Community Pharmacy Clerkship Skills.

Abstract

This study was aimed to design Objective Structured Field Examination (OSFE) and also standardize the course plan of community pharmacy clerkship at Pharmacy Faculty of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (Iran).The study was composed of several stages including; evaluation of the old program, standardization and implementation of the new course plan, design and implementation of OSFE, and finally results evaluation.Lack of a fair final assessment protocol and proper organized educating system in various fields of community pharmacy clerkship skills were assigned as the main weaknesses of the old program. Educational priorities were determined and student's feedback was assessed to design the new curriculum consisting of sessions to fulfill a 60-hour training course. More than 70% of the students were satisfied and successfulness and efficiency of the new clerkship program was significantly greater than the old program (P<0.05). In addition, they believed that OSFE was a suitable testing method.The defined course plan was successfully improved different skills of the students and OSFE was concluded as a proper performance based assessment method. This is easily adoptable by pharmacy faculties to improve the educational outcomes of the clerkship course.