A tool to assess student performance in a Clostridium difficile infection simulation scenario

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Education
• Medical Simulation
• Infectious Diseases

Background:

• Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) requires specific clinical decision-making skills.
• Assessing student pharmacists' competency in managing CDI is crucial for patient safety.
• Existing evaluation methods may not adequately capture performance in complex simulation scenarios.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an evaluation tool for student pharmacists' performance.
• To assess competency in a simulation involving a patient with Clostridium difficile infection (CDI).
• To ensure reliable measurement of clinical decision-making skills.

Main Methods:

• Expert panel review established content validity.
• The tool was used by faculty to evaluate student groups in 2011.
• A modified version was tested in 2012, with analysis of internal consistency and inter-rater reliability.

Main Results:

• The initial 2011 tool showed good internal consistency but variable inter-rater agreement.
• The revised 2012 tool demonstrated acceptable internal consistency.
• The 2012 version achieved good to excellent inter-rater agreement for most items.

Conclusions:

• The validated tool reliably assesses student pharmacists' performance in CDI simulation.
• The tool effectively measures clinical decision-making during simulated patient encounters.
• This evaluation instrument supports competency-based pharmacy education.