Supervision: Assessing Diagnostic Report Writing

Abstract

One of the most time-consuming tasks for clinical educators is reading and editing first drafts of clinical reports prepared by students. Clinical educators at Appalachian State University (ASU) devised a tool that would make this task more efficient for clinical educators without sacrificing student learning. In the fall of 2008, the authors participated in a workshop series about using rubrics for student assessment. Participants from across the university were asked to bring existing rubrics to revise or be prepared to develop new rubrics. We modified an existing general tool into a five-level rubric specific to diagnostic reports, with detailed examples and explanations for each level, a qualitative rating scale, and a quantitative rating scale. After using the rubric for two semesters, we determined that the rubric feedback was of benefit to the students, who were consequently better able to discuss their individual writing strengths and weaknesses. The question remains whether the benefit to the students outweighs the amount of time required for the clinical educators to complete the rubric.