Background::
Clinical competence of pharmacy students is better evaluated at their practice sites. compared to
the classroom. A clinical pharmacy competency evaluation rubric like that of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy
(ACCP)is an effective assessment tool for clinical skills and can be used to show item reliability. The preceptors should be
trained on how to use the rubrics as many inherent factors could influence inter-rater reliability.
Objective::
To evaluate inter-rater reliability among preceptors on evaluating clinical competence of pharmacy students,
before and after a group discussion intervention.
Methods::
In this quasi experimental study in a United Arab Emirates teaching hospital, Seven clinical pharmacy
preceptors rated clinical pharmacy competencies of ten recent PharmD graduates referring to their portfolios and
preceptorship. Clinical pharmacy competencies were adopted from ACCP and mildly modified to be relevant for the local
settings.
Results::
Inter-rater reliability (Cronbach's Alpha) among preceptors was reasonable being practitioners at a single site for
2-4 years. At domain level, inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.79 - 0.93 before intervention and 0.94 - 0.99 after
intervention. No inter-rater reliability was observed in relation to certain competency elements ranging from 0.31 – 0.61
before intervention, but improved to 0.79 – 0.97 after intervention. Intra-class correlation coefficient improved among all
individual preceptors being reliable with each other after group discussion though some had no reliability with each other
before group discussion.
Conclusion::
Group discussion among preceptors at the training site was found to be effective in improving inter-rater
reliability on all elements of the clinical pharmacy competency evaluation. Removing a preceptor from analysis did not
affect inter-rater reliability after group discussion.
Suicide Ideation and Behavior Assessment Tool (SIBAT): Evaluation of Intra- and Inter-Rater Reliability, Validity, and Mapping to Columbia Classification Algorithm of Suicide Assessment
