Consultation skills for pharmacy practice: Assessment Guidance

1 CSfPP Assessment Guidance V7 26th September 2014 Page 1 Consultation skills for pharmacy practice: Assessment Guidance About this Guidance We ve written this Guidance to tell you more about the Assessment and what it seeks to achieve, to remind you about the indicators that you will be looking for in the Assessment and to share the evaluation criteria that our team of assessors used when they were rating the videos that you watch. We think it s a good idea to read through the whole of this Guidance ; we know it s quite long but we ve tried to make it easy to read. If you just need to remind yourself of the evaluation criteria however, you can click here to go straight to that page. About this e- Assessment We have developed this Assessment to support pharmacists and pharmacy technicians wherever they work in patient facing roles.

2 Whilst each case is set in a particular area of practice, you are evaluating the skills that are being used not the clinical knowledge. It s clear that good communication and Consultation skills are essential for professional practice. But we rarely get the chance to watch other people in their practice, or to be formally reviewed in our own. This Assessment allows you the chance to watch a pharmacist in action, with a medical actor, and to make a judgment on the skills that they display. Each video was reviewed by a team of pharmacists from across England, working in a range of practice settings. Together they agreed whether the pharmacist was displaying poor, good or excellent Consultation skills .

3 When you pass the Assessment you can be assured that you have demonstrated an ability to recognise what makes practice good. Your challenge then will be to make sure that this is the approach that you use when you are working with your patients. We are not looking for you to be hyper critical but at the same time do not want you to have a nonchalant approach. You will need to apply your professional judgement. The approach we would like you to take is as a critical friend. So, you are there to look for things which could be improved and recognise things done well. Record things as you watch. When you have built up this ability to assess others you should then apply it to reflect on and develop your own practice.

4 CSfPP Assessment Guidance V7 26th September 2014 Page 2 The pharmacy professionals in the videos are real. They have been asked to demonstrate some skills , attitudes and behaviours which may not reflect their daily practice. Many have found it difficult to include aspects of bad practice but you will see these demonstrated in some videos. We have also used placebos and dummy tablet boxes in some shoots. The patients you see in the videos are medical role players (actors). We recognise that this type of Assessment asks you to make a judgement about what you see. Any type of judgement is subject to an element of subjectivity. To reduce the impact of this, each video clip has been reviewed independently by a team of at least three assessors by applying an indicator marking framework.

5 We refer to these assessors as our panel throughout this Guidance . We give you a copy of their evaluation framework, as you will be making an Assessment of the practice you see, in order to make the Assessment fair (Appendix 1). The evaluation framework contains key skills and behavioural indicators which reflect the national practice standards for pharmacy consultations. We recommend you print this, become familiar with the content and use it as a reference source when working through the video observations. Academic integrity This Assessment asks you to make a judgment on the skills that a pharmacist is demonstrating. As you are seeking to match the judgment that our panel made, it s important that you use the same evaluation criteria.

6 Make sure that you keep a copy of the evaluation framework to hand to support you in making your Assessment . As you become more familiar with the indicators of poor, good and excellent practice, try and apply them to your own consultations as well as the ones that you watch in this video. The Assessment is intended to be a true reflection of your personal abilities so you should use your professional judgement to ensure you find a quiet place where you can work on your own without interruptions. How the Assessment works The Consultation skills for pharmacy practice e- Assessment is hosted on the CPPE website and you can find it at: There are four sections to this e- Assessment . You are allowed 30 minutes to complete each section so make sure you have enough time before you start each section .

7 Keep an eye on the timer in the top right hand corner. We recommend that you complete the sections in order from one to four. It will help you consolidate your learning and each section builds on the one that precedes it. After attempting a section , you have to wait a day (20 hours) before you can try again. We recommend that you use that time to read through the evaluation framework again and refer to the practice standards in the learning programme. CSfPP Assessment Guidance V7 26th September 2014 Page 3 The pass mark for the first two sections is 80 percent. The pass mark for sections three and four is 60 percent. This reflects the fact that it is more difficult to make an evaluation than it is to identify whether an action occurs.

8 We tell you as soon as you finish the section whether you have passed it or not. What the e- Assessment looks like There are four sections to the e- Assessment . Here is an outline of each section ; what the section looks like, what it assesses and top tips to support you through the Assessment section . section 1 section 1 questions are knowledge and practice based and focuses on the following areas: Medicines adherence and medicines optimisation Practice standards Consultation models Consultation tools and frameworks for practice Communication and Consultation skills The section contains 15 multiple choice questions. Each question has five possible answer options. You must choose the single best answer from the list.

9 There may be more than one answer which could be suitable; you have to choose the most appropriate answer. Top tips to support you through section 1 Update your knowledge by working through the distance learning programme Consultation skills for pharmacy practice: Taking a patient-centred approach. If you are not successful in your attempt at section 1 you will be provided with some general feedback on areas of the Assessment to revisit before your next attempt Have a copy of the distance learning programme to hand at the time of the Assessment CSfPP Assessment Guidance V7 26th September 2014 Page 4 Have knowledge of the national practice standards for pharmacy consultations and have a copy to hand There may be more than one answer which is suitable, choose the most appropriate response Sections 2, 3 and 4 These three sections all ask you to watch three video clips and assess them.

10 section two asks you to state whether an indicator is demonstrated. section three lists five indicators which are demonstrated and asks you to evaluate how well they are done. section four lists five indicators. It asks if the indicator is demonstrated and, if so, asks you to evaluate how well it is done. Sections three and four are more difficult as they ask you to make a judgment. Video observation In each of the three sections you will observe and assess three short video clips of a Consultation . We know it is hard to sit and assess a full length Consultation so we have developed video clips of two to three minutes in length. The video clip will focus on one of the following areas of the Consultation although there may be some slight overlap in what you see in the clip.