Pharmacy Practice Resident, Department of Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of Washington, 1959 NE Pacific Street, Seattle, WA 98195-7630, United States.
Department of Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy, University of California, San Francisco, 521 Parnassus Avenue, Floor 3, San Francisco, CA 94143-0622, United States.
Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2022 May;14(5):591-596. doi: 10.1016/j.cptl.2022.04.004. Epub 2022 May 7.
Short-answer questions (SAQs) are often used to assess pharmacy student competency. However, the literature lacks guidance on SAQ development strategies, resulting in varying practices between SAQ writers. Understanding student and faculty perceptions of what constitutes a high-quality SAQ can identify best practices for SAQ development.
We surveyed second-year pharmacy students at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) to assess their perceptions of SAQs. Likert-type data were descriptively analyzed, and open-ended responses were analyzed using thematic analysis; we used these results to draft an initial SAQ checklist. We then conducted focus groups of UCSF pharmacy faculty to explore their experiences writing SAQs. Transcripts were analyzed using the survey codebook and de novo codes to generate themes. We used the focus group findings to finalize the checklist.
Seventy-five students (82%) completed the survey. Students identified "structure" (organizing into sections/lists) and "content" (clearly delineating student's task) as two ways to improve SAQ quality. Eight faculty participated in focus groups of two to three participants each. Faculty expanded on these previous themes and also identified a new theme, "process." This included peer review of SAQs as well as the iterative process involved in writing the SAQ, model answer, and grading rubric.
Content, structure, and process were the three areas identified for the improvement of SAQ quality at our institution. A checklist outlining best practices in these areas may be best implemented and adopted within the SAQ peer-review process.
简答题（SAQs）常用于评估药学专业学生的能力。然而，文献中缺乏关于 SAQ 开发策略的指导，导致 SAQ 编写者之间的实践方法存在差异。了解学生和教师对高质量 SAQ 的看法，可以确定 SAQ 开发的最佳实践。
我们对加州大学旧金山分校（UCSF）的二年级药学学生进行了调查，以评估他们对 SAQ 的看法。采用李克特量表数据进行描述性分析，对开放式回答采用主题分析进行分析；我们使用这些结果起草了一份初始的 SAQ 检查表。然后，我们对 UCSF 药学教师进行了焦点小组讨论，以探讨他们编写 SAQ 的经验。使用调查代码簿和新代码对转录本进行分析，以生成主题。我们使用焦点小组的发现来最终确定检查表。
75 名学生（82%）完成了调查。学生们确定了“结构”（组织成部分/列表）和“内容”（清楚地划定学生的任务）是提高 SAQ 质量的两种方法。8 名教师参加了每个小组有两到三名参与者的焦点小组讨论。教师们扩展了这些先前的主题，并确定了一个新的主题，“过程”。这包括对 SAQ 的同行评审以及编写 SAQ、标准答案和评分细则的迭代过程。
在我们的机构中，确定了内容、结构和过程这三个方面来提高 SAQ 的质量。在这些领域制定最佳实践检查表可能最适合在 SAQ 同行评审过程中实施和采用。
