Keywords
performance-based assessment, education/training programmes, clinical educators
performance-based assessment, education/training programmes, clinical educators
Assessment of health professional students during work-based placements, also known as performance-based assessment (PBA), refers to the appraisal process conducted during clinical placements, and establishes students’ readiness for independent professional practice1. PBA determines health professional competence2, providing evidence of students’ abilities to care for patients in a real, uncontrolled clinical learning environment3. This assessment process aligns with effective outcome-based education, where students are required to achieve standardised professional competencies in order to graduate as competent clinicians2. Preliminary searches of relevant literature highlighted a paucity of evidence-based education programmes for clinical educators. Clinical educators are healthcare practitioners primarily involved in service delivery, who undertake student supervision and PBA in the workplace4. Titles used to describe health professionals who undertake this education role include practice educator, preceptor, mentor, fieldwork educator, clinical teacher and clinical educator5–8. For consistency, the term ‘clinical educator’ will be used throughout this protocol.
Current literature in this area highlights challenges with PBA, citing inter and intra-rater reliability and knowledge of assessment processes as the greatest difficulties9–12. Clinical educators who are deficient in knowledge, skills and confidence for this role, may potentially compromise the PBA decision-making process, thereby casting doubt on a graduate’s credentials as a safe competent practitioner. Thus, exploration of current opportunities available for health professionals to address their educational needs in this area is most important6,13,14.
Assessment in the clinical environment is a complex process open to many challenges and influenced by several factors including the assessor, the clinical learning environment and the assessment task9,11,15. Considerable responsibility is placed on these clinicians, as PBA often determines progression through the programme and may contribute significantly to the overall grade awarded to the student16,17. Dynamics impacting PBA relating to the assessors may include, variation in interpretation of the task and how it is judged18, differences in understanding of the assessment criteria19, and navigating the complex student-clinician relationship, where assessors act as both mentor and examiner9,18. Other relevant influences may include potential lack of commitment to the assessment process by clinical educators due to it been seen as a non-service related activity20, and cognitive or cultural biases11,18. In the clinical learning environment, issues such as time pressures21, the multiple demanding roles of the clinician1 and the uncertain nature of the clinical setting, often presenting complex learning opportunities11, also present challenges. Assessment tasks may be viewed as problematic, requiring assessors to convert an observed performance into a numerical score1,22, with the added challenge of precise recall of a performance, due to the time lapse between observation and actual grading22. Furthermore, these difficulties may be heightened when a clinical educator is supervising and grading an underperforming student23. Thus, professional development to support clinical educators to carry out their role as assessors is critical to ensure the quality of work-based education and assessment6,9,16.
There is some evidence to suggest that universities provide education programmes to induct new practice educators into their role, and more advanced programmes for experienced educators, to grow their teaching and assessment skills7,14,15,24,25. Programmes are delivered mainly through formal instructional approaches such as university-based workshops or online e-learning units, which may include education on implementing PBA15,24–26. However, certification requirements for these programmes are inconsistent and no specific guidance in relation to the format, content or frequency of PBA education are recommended10,27,28.
The majority of research related to PBA education is situated in medical education, with preliminary searches demonstrating limited studies for allied health professions and nursing25,29–31. In medicine, studies frequently use interactive workshops and video vignette of students’ clinical performances based on teaching approaches such as ‘Performance Dimension Training’ or ‘Frame of Reference’ training21,32,33. These studies have shown a positive impact on participants assessment confidence, skills and knowledge, with more variable success for grading accuracy and reliability. A small number of recent allied health studies using similar approaches, highlighted the benefits of interactive dialogue between assessors as part of the decision-making process, resulting in more transparent assessment processes, and also improved rating accuracy of assessors15,34. A preliminary search identified one systematic review specifically associated with professional development of clinical educators. Milne et al., (2011) reviewed evidence-based training for clinical supervisors in mental health professions, identifying 20 different topics provided in education programmes, however assessment was not explicitly reported as a component of training in any of these studies25. A further systematic review addressing the issues and concerns related to learning and assessment in the clinical learning environment14, and a more recent scoping review exploring the factors needed to support clinical educators in the workplace35, do not specifically addresses PBA education, however both highlight the requirement for professional development in assessment practices. A search for existing scoping and systematic review protocols related to education programme on performance-based assessment for allied health or nursing professionals was conducted in MEDLINE (Ovid), Best Evidence Medical Education, Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Evidence Synthesis and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews in July 2022, producing no protocols on this topic.
Preparing clinical educators to implement PBA and develop expertise as an assessor requires on-going education and experience35,36. In addition, there is mounting pressure on universities from accreditation and regulatory bodies to ensure clinical educators are fit for their role, which includes the provision of credible and defensible PBA evaluations to safeguard the public. Therefore, it is a timely and essential task to investigate the breath and scope of existing literature regarding the education provided to clinical educators to deliver PBA. The aim of this scoping review is to investigate and describe education programmes delivered to allied health and nursing clinical educators, to develop PBA knowledge and skills.
This proposed scoping review will be conducted in accordance with the Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review guidelines37, informed by the Arskey and O’Malley framework38, with consideration of recommendation from Levac et al.,39, Duadt et al.,40 and Peters et al., 202241.
Scoping reviews are an effective method to establish the extent of the available research on a particular topic by exploring diverse international research sources, clarifying key concepts and identifying gaps in the knowledge on a specific research topic40,42. In addition, given the limited yield of literature from the initial search and investigative nature of this research, a scoping review is well positioned to identify any gaps in the research.
This study protocol will address the following question: what is known about education programmes used to develop PBA knowledge and skills for clinical educators in allied health and nursing?
The review objectives are as follows:
To explore the extent, range and nature of the literature on PBA education programmes provided to allied health and nursing professionals
To chart specific characteristics related to the context, target population, format, aim, instructional methods/teaching strategies, content, pedagogical approaches, evaluation and key findings or educational impact of these programmes
To collate, describe and summarise the available evidence on PBA education programmes, and identify any gaps in the existing research
The purpose of the review is to explore and describe education programmes delivered to allied health and nursing clinical educators, to develop PBA knowledge and skills.
The search strategy was constructed using the Population-Concept-Context framework to guide the eligibility criteria. An overview of the inclusion and exclusion criteria are outlined in Table 1.
The primary population of this review are clinical educators, described as clinicians who supervise pre-qualification students on clinical placements. Clinical educators may work in a part-time or full-time capacity and be employed across a wide range of workplaces providing healthcare to service users. This scoping review will consider studies that include clinical educators from the following health and social work professions: dietitians, occupational therapists, nursing, optometrists, orthoptists, physiotherapists, podiatrists, psychologists, radiographers, radiation therapists, social workers and speech and language therapists. Professions identified include those awarded a recognised professional entry-level qualification from universities and have work-based placements as an integral part of their programmes.
This scoping review is designed to explore PBA education programmes provided to allied health and nursing clinical educators who supervising pre-qualification students. These programmes may be designed, developed and delivered by academics with a practice education remit or dedicated discipline specific practice education staff. Education programmes must include PBA as the main focus or as a component of a programme, giving a clear description of the design and / or implementation and / or evaluation of the assessment aspect. All instructional methods or teaching strategies for programme delivery will be considered and may include but are not limited to, interactive workshops, didactic lectures, structured reflection opportunities, role-play or other simulation approaches, workplace observational coaching or other methods. Evaluation outcomes for the programmes will be pursued.
PBA education programmes may be based in the university as a face-to-face event, or as a university e-learning virtual programme or facilitated in a clinical setting. Programmes may also vary in duration from single interventions completed over a number of hours or a single day, to more longitudinal programmes delivered over a defined period of time. Literature will be searched from the year 2000 recognising the growth in research and development in the area of work-based assessment in recent decades. There will be no limits on geographical location.
A professional librarian will be consulted to assist with developing comprehensive search strategies to identify relevant literature from a broad range of sources including electronic databases, reference lists and grey literature. Initial searches of EMBASE and PUBMED databases were undertaken in July 2022 to identify studies relevant to the research area. Keywords and index terms of the relevant studies were then used to create search strategies. The final EMBASE search strategy is outlined in Table 2.
A comprehensive search will be undertaken to identify relevant publications in the following databases: EMBASE, ERIC, MEDLINE (Ovid), Web of Science and CINAHL. Bibliographies of relevant publications and review articles will be examined for further citations and checked for suitability using the eligibility criteria. A grey literature search will be undertaken using databases identified in the inclusion criteria. Websites of individual professional bodies, universities, professional regulator or government education departments will not be searched as this is beyond the resources of this research project, considering the breath of professions included in the review. The search will be iterative and any relevant additional terms, concepts or literature sources, emerging during the search, screening or selection processes, may be added to the search strategy as the review progresses41. Only publications in the English language will be included.
Following the searches, appropriate publications will be imported into Covidence, and any duplicates not already detected will be removed (Abstrackr is a free open source alternative that can carry out similar functions to Covidence). To ensure reliability in selection, two reviewers will independently screen the title and abstract of a random sample of 20 retrieved articles, to ensure consistency between the reviewers regarding the eligibility criteria41. All records will then be screened by two reviewers, with titles and abstracts appraised against the inclusion/exclusion criteria40. Uncertainties or disputes related to the study selection will be discussed at scheduled meetings at the beginning, midpoint and final stages of the abstract review process39. Where an inclusion or exclusion decision cannot be agreed from the title or abstract, the full article will be screened. Publications deemed appropriate will be eligible for full text screening, by the two independent reviewers, confirming appropriateness for inclusion in the scoping review. Any disagreements will be resolved through discussion and consensus with a third reviewer.
Covidence will be used to manage citations and perform data extraction based on pre-determined data characteristics listed below. Initially, five to ten identified papers will be piloted by two reviewers to ensure agreement on data extraction characteristics and that the data fields are consistent with the research question39. During the review process, data fields may be further refined with any changes reported in the final review38,43. Any questions will be resolved by discussion to reach consensus. Where ambiguity or omissions exist, study authors will be contacted for further details. Data will be extracted by a single review author and verified by a second reviewer. As the purpose of this scoping review is focused on describing sources of evidence on a specific research topic, a risk of bias for source of evidence will not be included38,41.
The following fields will be extracted from the included studies:
1. Author
2. Year of publication
3. Country of study
4. Healthcare profession
5. Size of study population
6. Format/type of programme
7. Location and duration of progamme
8. Overall aim or focus of the programme
9. Instructional methods/teaching strategies
10. Content of programme
11. Theoretical/conceptual framework/pedagogies underpinning teaching methods
12. Evaluation methods
13. Key findings/educational impact
The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Review (PRIMSA-P) checklist will be followed for organisation of information and reporting44. A PRISMA flow diagram will be used to report the results of the literature search. This will include numbers of articles imported, duplicates identified, titles and abstracts screened, irrelevant studies removed, rationale for exclusion of articles and final full-text studies included for review45. To maintain transparency, any changes from the protocol will be reported in the scoping review report41. All data extracted will be mapped into tabular format, based on descriptive headings in the data extraction form, and accompanied by a narrative summary of the results in line with the review objectives.
An earlier version (preprint) of this article can be found on Open Science Framework: ‘Education programmes on performance-based assessment for allied health and nursing clinical educators: A scoping review protocol’ (https://osf.io/sjxhf/).
Is the rationale for, and objectives of, the study clearly described?
Partly
Is the study design appropriate for the research question?
Yes
Are sufficient details of the methods provided to allow replication by others?
Yes
Are the datasets clearly presented in a useable and accessible format?
Not applicable
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Is the rationale for, and objectives of, the study clearly described?
Yes
Is the study design appropriate for the research question?
Yes
Are sufficient details of the methods provided to allow replication by others?
Yes
Are the datasets clearly presented in a useable and accessible format?
Yes
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Alongside their report, reviewers assign a status to the article:
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Provide sufficient details of any financial or non-financial competing interests to enable users to assess whether your comments might lead a reasonable person to question your impartiality. Consider the following examples, but note that this is not an exhaustive list:
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