DEVELOPING AN ASSESSMENT OF PHARMACY PRACTICE KNOWLEDGE

An assessment of pharmacists' practice knowledge was developed as part of a multi-year project investigating continuing competence. Trained pharmacy practitioners used a previously validated competency blueprint to prepare 673 assessment items. Each item was related to a specific competency and presented in a selection-type format. Using a series of three pretests, the item pool was refined through an examination of the psychometric characteristics of the questions. Items remaining in the pool after the pretests were content validated using panels of pharmacy practitioners. The content-validated items were then used to construct two parallel forms of the assessment, each containing 120 items. Both forms were pilot-tested with final-year pharmacy students and pharmacists. Pilot-test results indicate the scores were reliable and permitted a valid assessment of a pharmacist's general practice knowledge. Evidence is presented supporting the acceptability and feasibility of the knowledge assessment as a general screen of competence.