Perspectives Summer/Fall 2016

20 • NOVA SOUTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY Audiology FORT LAUDERDALE Each clinical competency assessed was broken down into the component skills that make up that competency. In this manner, preceptors are making less of a judgment call based on ratings that require interpretation and definition and are scoring how many components of the skill the student can complete without preceptor guidance. Analysis of data collected indicates significant differences at the externship level, with the new evaluation system showing greater delineation and progression in clinical skills. Additionally, there is a significant correlation between total skills and percentage score for externship, demonstrating that the student is progressing in his or her mastery of required clinical skills and is continuing to add and broaden his or her skill set. The previous rating-scale form evidenced a ceiling effect within the first quarter of externship, with no way for a student to demonstrate growth. The same relationship of skill-set progression is not evident for internship. Additionally, most scores are at the 90-percent level or higher, as was seen with previous evaluation tools. The timeline for each semester of internship is only 14 weeks. The process then begins again with a new site, a new preceptor, and a new set of expectations. Although it could be speculated that this would render all evaluations as poor, they remain fairly level in performance, regard- less of placement, throughout all three semesters of internship. The working hypothesis for this finding is internship preceptors feel the student is doing everything as expected, yielding high scores for all students. Furthermore, it is possible the internship preceptors do not have the same investment in the student and know the student will be moving to externship. As a result, they are less critical of performance. In summary, the descriptive skill competency evaluation is an effective way to evaluate extern- ship performance. More work is required, however, to determine an effective evaluation tool of internship performance. Anecdotally, from preceptor feedback, descriptive skill competency evaluation requires less training, because the definitions of required skills of student perfor- mance are clearer than with a judgment scale. n Continued from page 19