Measuring Competency of Pharmacy Residents: A Survey of Residency Programs' Methods for Assessment and Evaluation

The Canadian Pharmacy Residency Board (CPRB) specifies the competencies that pharmacy residents must attain and the need for assessment and evaluation. Methods of assessment and evaluation are left to the discretion of individual programs. There is a scarcity of published literature compiling and comparing the strategies used by Canadian residency programs.

To determine curricular components used for assessment and evaluation; to describe the tools used by programs; to characterize the scheduling, frequency, and repetition of curricular components; and to determine the individuals or groups involved.

Coordinators of hospital pharmacy residency programs with CPRB accreditation or accreditation pending were surveyed to collect information about the assessment and evaluation of select CPRB standards.

From the 37 eligible residency programs, 20 unique responses (54%) were received. All respondents were general practice programs (100%) in predominantly multicentre organizations (70%). Programs were similar in terms of assessment components used, with all respondents citing care plan review, direct observation of patient care, journal clubs, creation of project timelines, and ethics submission. The predominant evaluation components were within-department presentations (100%), written manuscripts (95%), drug information rotations (85%), and longitudinal evaluations (75%). Standardized forms (70%-100%) defined by Bloom's taxonomy (65%) and the CPRB "levels and ranges" document (60%) were the principle means used. Assessments for patient care and for provision of education were generally carried out immediately (80% and 95%, respectively), whereas project management skills were assessed predominantly at final evaluation (75%). Self-assessment and assessment by pharmacy team members occurred for every competency, whereas patients (0%-10%) and allied health professionals (5%) were less frequently involved.

The assessment and evaluation strategies reported by programs were congruent. The results provide a summary of national practices and will allow existing and developing programs to examine their approach to assessment and evaluation for alignment with national standards.