Development and Validation of a Rubric to Evaluate Diabetes SOAP Note Writing in APPE

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Education
• Clinical Skills Assessment

Background:

• Effective evaluation of clinical documentation is crucial in pharmacy education.
• Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan (SOAP) notes are a standard method for documenting patient care in primary care settings.
• Standardized rubrics enhance the objectivity and reliability of student performance evaluations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a grading rubric for assessing diabetes-related Subjective, Objective, Assessment, Plan (SOAP) notes.
• To evaluate the reliability of the rubric among multiple raters.
• To assess student perceptions of the rubric's utility in improving their SOAP note writing skills.

Main Methods:

• A 10-month development and implementation of a grading rubric by ten primary care advanced pharmacy practice experiences (APPEs) faculty.
• Correlation analyses were performed between rubric scores and APPE grades, Pharmaceutical Care Ability Profile Scores, and Global Impression Scores to establish criterion-related validity.
• Inter-rater and intra-rater reliability were assessed using Cohen's kappa and Intraclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC).

Main Results:

• The rubric was applied to 167 SOAP notes from 51 students, with scores significantly increasing across the notes.
• Significant positive correlations were observed between rubric scores and the criterion variables, supporting validity.
• Inter-rater reliability was fair (ICC=.59), while intra-rater reliability was excellent (ICC=.98–1.00).
• Over 84% of students reported improved ability and 92% reported increased confidence in writing SOAP notes.

Conclusions:

• The developed rubric provides a valid and reliable tool for assessing student SOAP note writing in diabetes care.
• The rubric enhances grading consistency among different evaluators.
• Implementation of the rubric positively impacted student confidence and perceived ability in clinical documentation.