Current Assessment Practices for Evaluating Clinical Students - Research Paper Example

? Current Assessment Practices for Evaluating Clinical Sur Introduction Assessment is the act of evaluating one’s quality, nature and ability of doing a job. Assessors carry out assessment to determine the competence of a student towards a function. Assessors conduct Assessment at the end of every learning period to determine the best and those who are to repeat the course. Setting out a quality assessment is challenging as it requires time and the right choice of assessment techniques. For one to qualify to be an assessor or in an institution, the institution must have full proof that one is fully competent in the field of assessment. There are three types of assessment these include, student, program and system assessment. The student assessment is important as helps the assessor to find out what the students know. Assessors use assessment to find out what the student know to determine their knowledge on the field. This helps in determining the quality of skills and level of performance of the student. Student assessment also help to determine how the students carryout their work. Assessors also test the students’ level of motivation and effort towards their area of study. Program assessment is the form of assessment that determines the competency of a system in an institution. Program assessment improves the program and keeps helps the program to achieve its goal. Program assessment helps in determining areas that require extra instructional emphasizing. The assessment also helps the teachers to identify unsuccessful and successful teachings and methods. Instructions use analysis of students’ results, observers, self-administration questionnaire, community survey and interviews of students and teachers to carry out program assessment. System assessment is a form of program assessment that is large scare based. One carry out program assessment, for example, in is a classroom but system assessment takes place in a whole school district or a large area of organization. In most cases, system assessment uses the third party constants. An excellent example of system assessment is the improving of curriculum that involves completely organizational area. An excellent example of assessment studies that many countries carry out is the assessment of clinical students. Overview and Critical Analysis of the Current Assessment Clinical students’ assessment is an assessment that teachers carry out to determine the competence of the students in the clinical field. Clinical students are important students in the society as they handle the sick. The education of the clinical students is, requiring right form of assessment as they deal directly with people’s lives. The form of assessment in the clinical field used to assess clinical students is strict. Clinical examination takes place at the end of placement consist of two clinical sessions. In these two sessions, the students engage with unseen and seen client. The examiners examine the clinical students using oral exams. The students engage with two examiners in each of the two sessions. The seen client is one whom the clinical student has an access for in 40 days of assignment. The unseen clients in clinics such as community clinic are those clients who visit the clinic for the first time. The unseen clients can also be those clients hospitalized for a long period or clients may be attending the clinic for a long period but seeing another therapist. The unseen session of the clinical student is a session that involves client’s first appointment at the clinic. In all occasions, there is informing of clients about the session, and agreement with student examination (McCarthy, 2011). The previous day to the examination, there is giving of some details on the unseen client to the clinical students. The information passed to the clinical student help them to reflect the initial life consultations in the language and speech therapy practice. The information on the unseen client includes the client’s name, age and other general information of importance. The nature of the clinical setting defines the of client appointment. The assessors do not provide clinical students with data that could lead to possible diagnosis of the client. The assessors make sure that the clinical students have a limit of information; this is to prevent interference of the aim and objective of the exercise (Walsh et al., 2007). Examiners expect each student to engage with client, get a brief history, and start to determine the diagnosis recommendation of the client. The assessment period is one hour and consists of formal and informal testing procedures. After the assessment, the clinical students provide information on the client and further assessment recommendation of any importance. In the unseen session, the clinical students have 20 minutes to evaluate the assessment and come up with appropriate description of client’s presentation. The clinical student uses the presentation for oral examination presentation. The clinical student uses the information acquired to present the findings on the client to the examiner in the oral examination. The student provides clinical description and provides approvals that are necessary to approve the clinical account. The students also provide an overview of therapy management and any other important information, which may help in the involvement to the examiner. The examiners do not provide feedback on the assessment of client by the student at the time of assessment. This is to avoid right consideration of incorrect information provision by the student. The supervisor usually carries on a follow up; the supervising therapist offers the settled result to the client. The clinical students prepare for the assessment through acquiring skills in client association, using formal and informal procedures. The involvement includes of clients that the therapist will encounter in work in the future. This equips students with necessary skills in implementing and planning of management and therapy. The examination provides the chance of the examiner, to determine the level of self-dependence, which the clinical student acquires in the important diagnostic procedure. The assessment enables the clinical student to show reverent diagnosis ability. The student can assess the strictness of presenting problems and its significance on the client (Lasater, 2011). The method of assessment has some limitations, which need rectification. In some cases, the student may not be able to determine diagnosis due to the nature of the diagnosis. An excellent example is the presentation of a couple of problems by the client. Some cases have inadequate evidence, which hinders the clinical students from acquiring diagnosis recommendation for the client. Clinical students should be able to venture a range of problems and provide a clear report on the client’s communication profile. Reflection The clinical students find the assessment using of unseen client as unapproachable, after field experiences they appreciate the assessment method. The students change their negative views to positive views and apply confidence the field. After a couple, of days, the students and their assessors report optimistic experience in the unseen method of assessment. The external assessors appreciate the method and it usefulness in improving students’ performance, which is an absence in other clinical methods of clinical assess situations. The use of unseen client method puts clinical students into real work environment, which prepares them for future career. The students are able to assess clients that they are not familiar with and without help. This helps the clinical students to build confidence when dealing with clients in the future. The students are able to speculate recommendation, which helps to show the competency of the student. The students are able to broaden their thinking through independency judgment, which help in their career life. The method is highly recommendable as it offers comprehensive information in the clinical students association with unseen clients. The examiner determines the student’s capability in the choosing of the assessment procedure. The assessor determines the ability of students to determine the levels of client’s performance and capacity. The examiner determines the ability of the student to prescribe the right diagnosis prescription to a client. Recommendation Clinical students are the future clinical officers, and their skills assessment is a vital aspect that the clinical schools must consider. Poor assessment leads to unskilled and officers that do not qualify for their job. The assessment department should always choose the most competent personnel to assess the clinical students. This is because they work on the client’s lives; if the clients get wrong prescription then the client's life is in danger. The frequency of assessment should be determined to determine which best fits to bring out a competence clinical officer. Institutions should make frequent students assessment on the views towards the method of assessment. The clinical sector should carry out system assessment to determine the levels of competence of education in the clinical schools. Students who do not qualify in the clinical field should not take the course. Conclusion Clinical students are vital to the society this is because the clinical students play a vital role in the health sector in the future. The unseen client method of determining the competence of a student is the most accurate. This is because the students are in real life situation and in their career field for testing. Assessors in the unseen client’s method of assessing clinical students must take the procedure with vital meaning on the ability of the student. The examiners must take the assessing of clinical students seriously. Student qualification is vital in determining new students in the field. Government should make sure that the sector has enough funds. The clinical schools should be located in areas that are favorable for frequent practical. References McCarthy, B. (2011). Virginia Henderson International Nursing Library. Assessment of student nurses in clinical practice 1.1. Retrieved from < http://hdl.handle.net/10755/156368> Lasater, K. (2011).Virginia Henderson International Nursing Library. Clinical Judgment Development: Using Simulation to Develop an Assessment Tool 1.1. Retrieved from Walsh, I. et al. (2007). Case studies of good practices in assessment of student learning in higher education. Examining Students’ Clinical Skills: Assessment of the ‘Unseen’ Client in a Speech and Language Therapy Clinic 1, p. 1. Retrieved from < http://www.aishe.org/readings/2007-1/No-01.html > Read More