On July 12, 54 DPT students participated with faculty and other clinician evaluators to complete the program’s full day graded Clinically Oriented Readiness Exam (CORE exam) using the PT CORE App built in conjunction with WesternU IT. This marks the first deployment of the app for the CORE exam, which successfully captured data from the students and evaluators.
The CORE exam involves students graded on case-based scenarios culminating in an extensive clinical practical examination where they are evaluated on content from semesters I-III. Students must pass the Clinically Oriented Readiness Exam (CORE) in order to progress into the first clinical education experience. The CORE is a critical exam, and is a full-day process, utilizing the Nursing Simulation Center. It requires many faculty, clinicians and volunteer patients (typically, WesternU DPT alumni) to ensure its success. The WesternU DPT program is one of only a few programs offering this type of unique comprehensive exams. It requires a significant level of resources to execute and grade students.
The Challenge
During the CORE exam, students must draw on their complete first year of acquired knowledge to successfully navigate patient scenarios and record their responses. The students actions and responses are assessed by clinicians and faculty. This evaluation, done in real time, has provided data about a student’s clinical readiness. The data previously has been assessed manually, taking countless hours, with the data synthesis providing an even more daunting task.
The WesternU IT Solution
Pre-COVID, Janet Konecne, PT, DPT, PhD, OCS, CSCS, Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy, and Dr. Dee Schilling, PhD, PT, FNAP, who served as dean of the College of Health Sciences (CHS), began formulating the idea to innovate the CORE process with WesternU IT, specifically the team of Danillo Vargas, George Davis and Bhaskara Undi, who envisioned a custom exam application. In recent years, Janet Konecne, PT, DPT, PhD, OCS, CSCS, continued the work with WesternU IT, and the PT CORE app was created.
Prior to attending the CORE exam students are directed to a private link to download the app to their devices. For the duration of the exam, students are able to enter their notes, assessments, and answer questions online as they navigate the patient scenarios, all while working with a standardized patient. Additionally, faculty and clinicians were able to simultaneously – in real-time – offer evaluation and grading using a rubric that was adapted for electronic use. This has created increased ease in grading, providing feedback comments for the students, and eliminating the need for manual grading.
The Results
Despite it being a very stressful graded test for DPT students, student satisfaction with the exam digitization by the PT CORE app was overwhelming.
· 99% of the students felt it was worthwhile.
· 98% wanted the experience more often.
· 90% felt the digitized experience helped them integrate information.
A Confidence Score was taken before and after the exam, with 95% of students feeling more confident with patient care and knowledge application after experiencing the CORE exam through digitization.
Not surprisingly, 100% of faculty and clinician evaluators felt the PT CORE app was an easier and more efficient way to grade the students than was done previously. In addition, the robust reporting within the PT CORE app allows faculty to identify students that were seemingly challenged with information integration, clearly indicate assessment data that were areas of common concern and provide other information to inform instruction in order to positively affect future student outcomes. The reporting allows for a more standardized approach in gathering a comprehensive picture of a student’s ability to manage patients.
The Future
The PT CORE app has caused a stir of excitement within the external PT community, and Dr. Harsha Deoghare, PT, PhD, is expected to showcase it at upcoming conferences throughout the new year. The WesternU IT Team and Dr. Janet Konecne are starting to collaborate on refining a similar product for the CORE II exam, taken by students at the end of Semester VII.
Finally, the level of customization offered by WesternU IT has caught the attention of other programs, as similar apps may be customized for other exams.