DOHA: Forty-seven pharmacists and students have taken a pilot exam part of the pharmacy licensing exam in Qatar.
Qatar University College of Pharmacy (CPH), along with Supreme Council of Health (SCH), Qatar Council for Health Practitioners, Hamad Medical Corporation and Primary Health Care Corporation has been instrumental in inaugurating the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in Qatar.
Provision of the OSCE is the first in the Middle East and the fourth in the world, and follows a nine-month pilot project to implement the exam in Qatar.
Candidates comprising CPH students and community, clinic and hospital pharmacists were involved in taking the pilot exam on May 27 at Qatar University.
The exam assesses clinical skills of prospective and practising pharmacists and is the ‘exit from degree’ assessment used in pharmacy programmes in Australia Canada, the UK and the US, which all students take simultaneously.
It gauges minimal standards in-depth by how exam participants interact with mock patients, and entails moving from station to station and being assessed for various skill sets.
With emphasis on patient care, examinees are assessed on interaction with patients; communicating with ESL patients; communicating across cultural barriers and ethical issues; critical thinking; building a patient care plan; and application of knowledge. Also assessed is knowledge and process of developing a care plan of common diseases in Qatar.
While it is voluntary in the pharmacy profession in Qatar, the exam is a requirement for CPH final-year students.
QU President, Prof Sheikha Abdulla Al Misnad, said: “We are proud of this accomplishment achieved alongside our partners. It is a testament to our collaborative efforts towards serving the community and realising goals of Qatar National Vision 2030 and the National Health Strategy.”
CPH Dean, Dr Ayman El Kadi, said CPH students’ preparation for OSCE starts in the first year of study.
“It is a rigorous process which entails Structured Multi-Skill Assessments (SMSA) every semester to measure their knowledge and competency.
In this way, students are well-prepared for OSCE exam where they can demonstrate knowledge and skills in patient interaction, decision-making and problem-solving.
The lead-up to piloting the exam included exchange of visits between CPH and SCH delegations and members from University of Toronto for training and capacity-building sessions. It also included workshops for CPH faculty and selected pharmacists on case writing with validation and standard setting to help them develop comprehensive questions for accurate patient interaction; and written exam standard setting to ensure consistent levels of complexity of exam cases.
Three patient training sessions were held to ensure uniformity of messages to exam participants, and three training workshops to assess the assessors.
Other training activities were mock-OSCE and care plan sessions with participants and exam Center staff orientation for all participants on the day of the exam.
Over 100 people were involved in coordinating the exam as assessors, standardised patients and other roles.
OSCE was also part of a continuing professional development activity at the college in which professors participated in a webinar with University of Toronto faculty on the use of OSCE for testing clinical skills performance in the pharmacy profession.
The Peninsula
