Reflective metacognition and objective structured clinical examination performance in introductory pharmacy practice...

Area of Science:

• Pharmacy Education
• Clinical Skills Assessment

Background:

• Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are vital for assessing clinical competence.
• The role of reflective practice in enhancing OSCE performance remains under-investigated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the impact of a self-reflection assignment on pharmacy students' OSCE performance.
• To determine if metacognitive skill development through reflection correlates with OSCE outcomes.
• To investigate the influence of student demographics on this correlation.

Main Methods:

• Second-year pharmacy students participated in a mock OSCE with a self-reflection component (intervention group).
• A control group from the prior year completed the OSCE without the reflection assignment.
• Statistical analyses assessed the correlation between reflections and OSCE scores, and demographic influences.

Main Results:

• No statistically significant difference in OSCE pass rates was observed between the intervention and control groups.
• Student demographics, including gender, age, and PCAT scores, did not significantly affect OSCE pass rates.
• While GPA influenced pass rates, overall, structured reflection did not show a significant association with summative OSCE performance.

Conclusions:

• The current study did not demonstrate a significant benefit of integrating structured self-reflection into OSCEs for pharmacy students.
• Faculty continue to support reflective practice, highlighting the need for more research.
• Further investigation is required to fully understand the value and optimal implementation of reflective practices in pharmacy education.