Croft H, Gilligan C, Rasiah R, Levett-Jones T, Schneider J. Development and inclusion of an entrustable professional activity (EPA) scale in a simulation-based medicine dispensing assessment.
CURRENTS IN PHARMACY TEACHING & LEARNING 2020;
12:203-212. [PMID:
32147163 DOI:
10.1016/j.cptl.2019.11.015]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/03/2019] [Revised: 08/09/2019] [Accepted: 11/09/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Effective, safe, and patient-centred dispensing is a core task of community pharmacists. Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) offer a way of defining and assessing these daily practice activities. Although EPAs have become popular within competency-based medical education programs, their use is new to pharmacy education and assessment.
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITY AND SETTING
A simulation-based assessment framework containing a scale of entrustment was developed to evaluate the readiness of Year 4 undergraduate pharmacy students to safely manage the supply of prescribed medicine(s) in a community pharmacy. The assessment framework was piloted in a fourth year "Transition to Practice" course with 28 simulation-based assessments conducted.
FINDINGS
An entrustment framework was developed and implemented successfully with Year 4 undergraduate pharmacy students. The EPA for medicine dispensing integrates competency domains that include information gathering, providing patient-centred care, clinical reasoning, medicine dispensing, and professional communications. On a scale ranging from level 1 to level 5, the majority (73%) of entrustment ratings were level 2 or level 3; and of the students who achieved different ratings between clinical scenarios, 75% of students improved on their second simulation attempt. There was a strong correlation between the global EPA ratings with the total score achieved across the domains.
SUMMARY
Using simulation-based assessment, entrustment decision making can be incorporated in "entry to profession" undergraduate and postgraduate pharmacy courses to assess students' readiness to transition between learning and professional practice.
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