Abstract:

The Arizona School of Podiatric Medicine (AZPod) has been using competency-based exams (CBE’s) for the last five years, starting with our inaugural class in 2006. Each CBE is designed to evaluate the progress our students are making in meeting six of our professions Core competencies: History taking, physical exam skills, interpretation of diagnostic tests, developing a patient management plan, communication and charting clinical notes. Each competency is evaluated multiple times throughout the year and analyzed to access the progress our students are making in achieving the established benchmarks. When student’s scores fell below the expected benchmarks of 80% or better, rather than just remediating the students we used this information to shape and improve our curriculum. The CBE results for the Class of 2008 showed one area fell below expectations, clinical note charting (77.50%). As a result, case-based instruction was added to the curriculum, where charting is modeled and students are required to write a clinical chart note for course credit.

Keywords:

Competency based exam, curricular change.