Assessing communication skills in student pharmacists—Psychometric validation of Global Communication Rubric

Abstract

Assessing communication skills in student pharmacistsPsychometric validation of the Global Communication Rubric. ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to perform psychometric validation of the Global Communication (GC) rubric. MethodsThe GC rubric was developed and used for the past 10 years at the institution to assess level of communication skills in Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) in the PharmD program. The rubric consisted of 6 questions with the scoring criteria of 0 (failure), 1 (needs improvement), 2 (satisfactory), and 3 (excellent). Data from GC rubric scores for Classes 2010 to 2020 (1,100 students) was used to perform psychometric validation by assessing the following properties: scale reliability; face, content, construct, and predictive validity; and responsiveness. ResultsInternal consistency reliability was acceptable at Cronbach’s alpha of 0.78. Construct validity showed that all six items loaded highly onto one component. Responsiveness was demonstrated using uptrend of the score improvement as the students advance in the curriculum from P1 to P3 levels. ConclusionThe result of this study confirmed reliability and validity of the GC rubric in evaluating communication skills of student pharmacists. Practice implicationsThe GC rubric is valuable in evaluating short encounters in an easy and expedited manner.