The assessment of clinical competency: an overview and preliminary report of Canadian physiotherapy programs

This pilot project was designed to collect information on the student assessment formats used by Canadian Physiotherapy programs. A mail questionnaire was used to gather the information. Practical exams generally consist of one to two cases with one examiner present. Little examiner training takes place. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination is being used at five universities. Stations are generally five to ten minutes long, with five to fifteen stations per exam. Patient and examiner training is sporadic. Multiple Choice Question Exams are used regularly with 40-150 questions being included. The respondents were generally satisfied with their clinical placement assessments. None of the respondents showed an understanding of standard setting. Various responses and methods of using the assessment procedures are not in accordance with research findings on the use of these methods. This may indicate a need for faculty development in the area of measurement and evaluation.