Comparison of faculty and student self-assessment scores of aseptic technique skills and the impact of video review on self-awareness for second-year pharmacy students

Educating students about aseptic technique presents many challenges. Students at Drake University have limited exposure to this skill outside of the classroom setting, and students have previously shown a lack of awareness related to their own aseptic technique skills. One approach to developing self-awareness in this area may be the incorporation of activities involving video viewing and self-reflection. Second-year pharmacy students in the Intermediate Pharmacy Skills and Applications 2 course completed four total aseptic technique activities, each of which was assessed by faculty using a standardized assessment tool. Each student was video-recorded during one of these aseptic technique activities. Students were asked to self-reflect on their performance immediately after the activity and again after viewing the video recording of their performance (using the same criteria included in a standardized faculty assessment tool). Student self-reflection scores before and after video viewing were then compared to faculty scores. One-hundred six students participated in the video recording and self-reflection activity. Compared to faculty assessment scores, there was no significant difference between the self-reflections before or after video viewing (p = 0.571). Video self-reflection had no significant impact on the ability to accurately self-assess aseptic technique skills, but this study did reveal several other opportunities for future teaching and research. Future efforts to impact student self-awareness should include additional self-reflection instruction, repeated self-reflection activities conducted over the course of a semester, and improved video recording technology.