ABSTRACT
Objective: To evaluate the curriculum for Doctor of Physical Therapy [DPT] programme based on World Federation of Medical Education [WFME] standards
Methods: A questionnaire was constructed based on WFME Should' and Must' standards. It was validated by five experts in two rounds. It is comprised of Items/ questions with Yes/No options. The questionnaire was filled by the DPT Faculty and final year students at Riphah International University, Islamabad from March 01, to April 30, 2017
Results: The key weakness identified were students participation in program management, evaluation, mission statement, program designing, curriculum committee, students activities and organization, and other matters relevant to students, followed by the use of external examiners, reliability and validity of assessment tools, scrutiny of assessments by external examiners and feedback to the students on assessment. The integration of behavioral and social sciences, readiness of graduates for postgraduate studies, institutional autonomy and academic freedom for curriculum development and designing, and opportunity for the participation of other stakeholders were identified as strengths
Conclusions: As per WFME standards the curriculum for DPT program needs improvements in student's assessments and their participation in program management, evaluation, mission statement and designing, along with facilitation in student's activities, organizations. Strengths of the curriculum were integration of behavioral and social sciences, readiness for postgraduate studies, institutional autonomy and academic freedom for the development and designing of curriculum, and the participation of other stakeholders
ABSTRACT
Background and objective: Workplace based assessment has a strong educational impact in terms of student's clinical performance by steering their learning towards the desired learning outcomes. Educational impact is hardly measured in the sphere of medical education and this study is an attempt to measure educational impact of post graduate residents. The aim of this study was "To explore educational impact of Minicex [Mini-clinical evaluation exercise] on residents with respect to their learning"
Methods: A mixed convergent parallel method was selected, participants were identified through non-probability convenience sampling, total 10 participants were chosen for data collection, all of them experienced four minicex encounters which generated their scores [the quantitative data], after first two Minicex encounters each participant was interviewed using a structured interview technique, similarly, after 3rd and 4th Minicex encounters. Data was entered in the SPSS version -21 to calculate descriptive statistics. Inferential statistics were determined using ANOVA to calculate improvement in score over time and P-value to report statistical significance. Qualitative analysis was done using thematic analysis approach with the help of themes based on interview questions: priori theme. NVIVO was used for triangulation of themes accordingly
Results: The results indicate statistically significant improvement in scores and p values were considered significant at 0.05. Also, qualitative analysis provided reasons for improvement in scores and residents' satisfaction such as feedback, motivation, self-directed learning, peer assisted learning
Conclusion: The study concluded that residents learning behavior and ,their satisfaction from assessment method can be enhanced through work place based assessment particularly in context of minicex [mini-clinical evaluation exercise] so encouraging its use in similar situations. However, the scope for generalization of results remains limited owing to a small sample size