Assessment of clinical pharmacology and competence during medicine clerkships

Safe and effective prescribing is a competency recognized in frameworks created by various countries for medical students entering clinical practice. Clinical pharmacology education, when aligned with competency-based medical education (CBME), offers an opportunity to improve pharmacotherapeutic decision-making and medication safety. This narrative review summarizes the current assessment methods used to evaluate clinical pharmacology competencies of undergraduate medical students during clerkships, including objective structured clinical exams (OSCEs), mini-clinical evaluation exercises (mini-CEX), case-based discussions, and written and oral exams. While these assessments are commonly used, their application to evaluate competencies related to clinical pharmacology is limited. The review illustrates the need for a structured, multimodal approach to assessment that emphasizes frequent formative feedback in a longitudinal manner, observable behaviours or tasks, and the implementation of online educational resources developed to target these competencies. Developing and aligning clinical pharmacology assessments with clear, specified competencies during clinical clerkships can potentially promote learner confidence, knowledge and skills necessary to optimize patient-centred care.