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Practical CSA

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Practical CSA Historically, one practical CSA was administered at the end of the third year (YR3) and a second practical CSA was administered at the beginning of the fourth year (YR4.) It was determined these two exams were no longer appropriately sequenced and did not meet the assessment needs of the DCP. In response to recommendations made in the 2015 YR3 and YR4 CSA Outcomes report, the YR4 practical exam was discontinued and the YR3 practical exam was renamed the practical CSA. In correlation with this realignment, administration of the practical CSA shifted to the end of Q9, when students have completed their introductory clinical experience. Successful completion of the practical CSA is also an eligibility criterion for assignment of …show more content…

The desired first-time pass rate is 80 percent. First-time pass rates below 80 percent are signified in red text to identify potential areas for curriculum, instructional, and/or clinic practicum experience improvement. Although the format of the exam changed to a certain degree, it is appropriate to compare performance outcomes for the Practical CSA over the last two-year period. Students continue to demonstrate competency when asked to demonstrate performance of clinical skills and thinking. Students who fail to achieve minimal competency are referred to CSEC for focused remediation and retake the exam when offered the following term. Feedback from students regarding the changes to the exam have been positive, including a sense of being better prepared for the NBCE Part IV exams. Some trends were identified between cohorts, particularly in regards to the PEP associated with the neurological examination patient encounter. The FA-15 cohort had difficultly identifying appropriate differential diagnoses, the WI-16 cohort failed to recognize exam findings consistent with spinal cord compression, and the SP-16 cohort struggled to differentiate acute versus chronic care recommendations. The SP-16 station wad dropped due to poor performance and post-exam analysis that indicated poor discrimination between correct answers and …show more content…

This is consistent with observations made previously on the YR4 CSA exam. This led to the recommendation to order advanced imaging that was not indicated for this patient. Many students also failed to identify ultrasound as a viable treatment options and several mentioned afterwards that this modality is rarely utilized in the CHC, partially due to clinician preference, but also because there was not currently a functioning unit available. The SP-16 cohort struggled with the interpretation of lung auscultation findings in the general exam PEP, missing a diagnosis of bronchitis. Many misdiagnosed pneumonia, resulting in the recommendation of unnecessary imaging and/or referral for antibiotics. As evident from the above discussion, students performed better on stations assessing practical skills than the PEP stations focused on critical thinking. It should also be noted that students tended to struggle more on PEP stations utilizing short-answer questions testing recall. Many left responses blank or did not adequately focus their answers as appropriate. It also appears as though students performed better on PEP stations in which they were asked to identify differential diagnoses and follow-up procedures over those requiring a diagnosis / problem list with

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