Students' self-efficacy completing the pharmacist patient care process: Integrating authentic assessment into a pharmacy elective

Background: Authentic assessments can be used to accurately measure students’ ability to perform tasks reflective of practising pharmacist responsibilities. Objective: To evaluate the impact of an authentic assessment on student self-efficacy in completing the Pharmacists Patient Care Process (PPCP) in an elective course. Methods: An authentic assessment simulated a direct patient care visit in an ambulatory care setting. For the assessment, students completed four steps of the PPCP, followed by a survey to evaluate their perceived self-efficacy in completing the activity. Results: After the activity, 90% or more students felt more confident in knowing what information to collect, conducting a patient interview, and counselling a patient. General themes from free response questions confirmed student confidence and knowledge. Conclusion: Creating and implementing an authentic assessment allowed for students to demonstrate improved self-efficacy while conducting the PPCP in a setting that closely resembled a real-life practice environment.