Abstract
For a constructively aligned curriculum in veterinary professionalism, there is a need for well-designed higher order learning outcomes to support students' professional identity formation. A lack of uniformly accepted definitions of veterinary professionalism necessitates the defining and refining of current concepts of professionalism to inform teaching and assessment. A potential method for achieving such learning outcomes is to generate these from simulated professionalism teaching scenarios. A workshop was designed in which veterinary educators used role play to resolve a professional dilemma. Following discussion of the appropriate management approach, participants were asked to reflect on the learning outcomes that were required to resolve the scenario and that students would achieve by going through the same classroom-based process. Workshop participants identified several professionalism learning outcomes that are not currently defined in the literature: realizing that there is not a single correct answer to a professional dilemma, making a decision despite this uncertainty, communicating differences of opinion, and understanding the effect of differences in professional identity. Although the process described runs counter to traditional curricular design, it may offer a valuable contribution to the discourse surrounding professionalism learning outcomes. Furthermore, it has generated higher level learning outcomes than have been obtained through other methods.
Highlights
Assessment of a clinician’s or clinical student’s professionalism frequently emphasises workplace based assessments, such as 360-degree evaluations, in which the observed behaviours of the individual are judged.[1]
When attempting to define professionalism learning outcomes, we proposed that, in the absence of available higher-order learning outcomes for success in a complex profession, it should be feasible to provide students with an authentic simulated experience, and ask them to reflect on the skills, knowledge and attributes they utilised to complete the task to their own satisfaction
The objectives of the workshop were to identify outcome competencies of professional studies teaching, to demonstrate how formative and summative assessments facilitate the development of professionalism, and to encourage participants to explore the boundaries of the veterinary social contract through role-play scenarios
Summary
Assessment of a clinician’s or clinical student’s professionalism frequently emphasises workplace based assessments, such as 360-degree evaluations, in which the observed behaviours of the individual are judged.[1] The assessment of professionalism in this way represents a traditional approach, in which a professional’s inner values are assumed to be accurately represented by their external behaviour. Greater understanding is afforded to the clinician who may be juggling various responsibilities (to patients, families, students, hospital administrators, and colleagues), is trying to remain ‘professional’ in the eyes of all, even though all may be exerting conflicting needs,[2] and whose observed behaviour may be temporarily compromised by the effects of ‘human factors’ (stress, fatigue, concerns about a difficult case, heavy workload).[3] Viewing professionalism through a contemporary complexity model necessitates assessments that extend beyond observed behaviours. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate a method of improving assessment practice, in this case through a novel approach to generating professionalism learning outcomes that have high validity and are engaging to students
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