As educators it is essential that we make data-driven decisions. Most programs are developing instruments and collecting data in isolation. Doing so can lead to difficulty in establishing and justifying benchmarks. As an alternative to struggling to develop assessment instruments, consider what might happen if a group of programs collaborated to develop instruments that they could use in common. Data could be aggregated and statistical analysis could be undertaken to create defensible benchmarks.
PAPCI provides an opportunity for a community of educators from peer institutions to gather and analyze data in aggregate to make better-informed decisions. PAPCI proposes that a collection of instruments be developed that programs would be willing to administer and then share the data collected to be aggregated into a pool. These assessment instruments may be related to any aspect of program operation (i.e. preceptor evaluations of student performance, faculty effectiveness, program administration). Two sample instruments are posted below.
Next steps:
- Review the instruments and determine if they would be appropriate for use in your program. The instruments are fairly straightforward and relate to well known items like the PANCE Blueprint and ARC-PA Standards. If you would like to suggest modifications, please feel free.
- Administer the instrument – in part or in whole – to the indicated population.
- Collect your aggregate results in an Excel document and email them to christopher(dot)hanifin@shu.edu
- The results will be pooled and means and standard deviations will be calculated. Results will be posted to this website.
Proposed Document One: Graduating Student Exit Survey
This survey is intended to be administered to students just before graduation. It asks students to reflect upon how well prepared they feel for the PANCE and for clinical practice. The survey also requests feedback related to compliance with a number of the Standards.
Proposed Document Two: Annual Faculty Survey
This survey is administered anonymously to faculty each academic year. The survey asks them to assess program compliance with Standards related to program operations and resources.