A few weeks ago I was at a workshop attended mainly by clinicians who are involved in student supervision. One of the questions asked was about the role of clinicians in student assessment. I thought it was worth writing a short note about the general feeling in the room, and my own thoughts on the matter.
First of all, we don’t allow clinicians to sit in on the formal assessment (i.e. examinations) of our students, for reasons of objectivity. We feel that in the past, the nature of personal relationships between students and clinicians has either positively or negatively affected assessment outcomes for the students. In fact, one clinician was bemoaning the fact that a student had passed an exam, even though the same student had performed poorly throughout the block. Not that having university staff completely removes bias but we feel that we’re more able to view the assessment without letting personal feelings impact the outcome. In addition, having not seen the student during the course of the placement, we can’t know how the student has performed over the previous month or so and since the exam is purely an indication of performance on the day, we are better able to make unbiased decisions.
I also need to make a clear distinction between the role of the clinician in summative and formative assessment. Clinicians certainly have a role in formative assessment as it relates to teaching. And that’s the key for me. Because of their daily experience on wards and with patients, clinicians have an incredibly valuable role to play in students’ clinical development. I would even argue that their impact is as (if not more) valuable than the role of the academic physiotherapist, for the reasons mentioned above.
However, when it comes to summative assessment i.e. exams, I don’t think that clinicians should be involved at all and not for the reasons I presented in the second paragraph above. The reason I don’t think that clinicians have a role to play in summative assessment is that it’s the university that provides the certification. We are accountable for making the decision of students’ competence and so we should have the final say in examination proceedings. Secondly, the HPCSA sets the curriculum and to some extent, the professional learning outcomes. Clinicians are not familiar with the curriculum, modules or in most cases, the specific learning outcomes of the Clinical Practice module. This is why I don’t think that clinicians should sit in on student exams.