Use of Situational Judgment Tests to Teach Empathy, Assertiveness, Communication, and Ethics

Abstract

Objective. The objectives of this study were to develop situational judgment test (SJT) scenarios for use in teaching empathy, assertiveness, and interprofessional communication in second-year pharmacy (P2) students and ethics in third-year pharmacy (P3) students, determine whether the SJTs developed were effective at measuring students' communication skills and ethical judgment, compare the performance of individual third-year students to the performance of teams of third-year students on the ethics SJT, and evaluate student feedback about SJTs as a teaching tool.Methods. Pharmacy faculty developed five SJT scenarios related to communications and five SJT scenarios related to ethics and piloted the scenarios with P2 and P3 students, respectively. Second-year students completed SJTs individually, while P3 students completed SJTs individually and in teams. Scenarios and responses were discussed with faculty after completion of the SJTs, and students completed a questionnaire to provide feedback on the SJTs.Results. The communications SJT was completed by 59 P2 students with a mean score of 67.5%. The ethics SJT was completed by 57 P3 students with a mean score of 80.1%. The ethics SJT was also completed by 10 teams of P3 students resulting in a mean score of 93.2%. Students indicated the SJT content was realistic and the tests provided the opportunity to reflect on how to approach challenging situations.Conclusion. Situational judgment tests were useful for teaching empathy, assertiveness, interprofessional communication, and ethics in pharmacy students. Future research should focus on predictive validity of SJTs for these content areas.