Assessment in Rural and Remote Locations
Over the last 15 years, there has been a substantial increase in the number of undergraduate medical students undertaking core clinical learning in rural and remote settings. Students learning in rural community settings, particularly rural longitudinal integrated clerkships gain important skills that may not be learned in shorter term clinical rotations in the tertiary teaching hospital setting at the parallel course level. The longitudinal placement opens up unique opportunities for skills acquisition and attitudinal development, heightened awareness of social accountability and inter-professional communication.
Does the changed learning paradigm warrant a revised assessment paradigm?
Globally there are many training centres where the clinical learning and assessment follow a non-traditional framework and produce competent doctors. Learning that happens in a rural or community-based real clinical context is enriched by its continuity, team approach and potentially transforming experiences.
Is a traditional assessment blueprint still valid to assess parallel student cohorts in rural/remote environments as well as those who have been city based for the same period?
Should assessment instruments be modified for greater validity or fidelity for rural students?
How would we benchmark any changes against traditional assessment?
This symposium invites contributions from schools with students learning in diverse settings and explores a common thread to their assessment practices and the maturity of their assessment culture.
Panelists (alphabetically)
- Hoffie Conradie (Director Ukwanda Centre for Rural Health, Worcester, South Africa)
- W Suzanne Eidson-Ton (Director, Rural Program in Medical Education (PRIME)), University of California, Davis, USA
- Jay Erickson (Assistant Dean-WWAMI Clinical Phase/Montana, University of Washington School of Medicine, USA)
- Carmi Margolis (Emeritus Professor, Medical School for International Health, Ben Gurion University, Israel)
- Roger Strasser (Professor of Rural Health, Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Ontario, Canada)
- Paul Worley (Dean of Medicine, Flinders University, Australia)
Bellagio Global Health Education Initiative 