For this selective activity, I had the opportunity to grade an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) for first year pharmacy students at Harding University College of Pharmacy. During this OSCE, the students were asked to collect a medication list from a patient, recognize that the patient was on duplicate medication therapy, and then recommend to the provider to discontinue one of the duplicates. The students were graded on their professionalism, communication skills, ability to gather information, and ability to make an appropriate medication recommendation.
Date: November 5, 2024
Length of Activity: Two hours
Prep Time: One hour
Learners: Eight P1 students
Comfort Level: Moderate
Teaching Goals Addressed:
SMART Goal 3: Learn how to provide quality feedback by providing constructive criticism to students through a variety of student-led teaching opportunities.
Reflection: During this learning activity, I learned that it is difficult to sit back quietly and watch an OSCE scenario without making interruptions. When a student does really well, it is easy to watch and grade, but when a student is really struggling in that situation, it can be painful to sit back and not make any suggestions. During this particular OSCE, the students had to keep asking questions to the patient to gather all of the necessary information. Some students stopped after one or two questions and weren't able to gather all of the information that was needed in order to make the recommendation to the provider to stop duplicate therapy. For these students, I know how intimidating OSCEs can be, so it was really difficult to sit back and let those students fail. However, I believe that in the long-run, this kind of failure will be good for those students. From personal experience, I have learned that in situations where I didn't know the answer or just got it all wrong, I learned the most. Making mistakes is a really great way to learn. After the OSCE, we were able to debrief and talk about what went right and where some of the students went wrong. Those students who failed to figure out that the patient was on duplicate therapy were really frustrated with themselves, but they seemed determined to not make that same mistake in the future. I did my best to emphasize to the students the importance of asking lots of questions to gather all of the necessary information to provide great patient care. I tried to encourage them that making mistakes allows us to grow and be better the next time. Overall, I think this was not only a great learning experience for the students, but it also taught me how to approach a situation in which the student "fails" the assignment.