The role of assessment in student placement

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Assessment on placement ensures that students achieve defined standards of practice that enable them to become competent health professionals.

Considerations from a university perspective

Universities play an important role in managing student placement assessment.  Universities should provide supervisors with:

• Clear expectations on the roles and responsibilities of the student, supervisor, and university in formative and summative assessment.
• The information/explanation that has been provided to the students in relation to assessment on placement.
• Training/professional development to ensure assessment is completed consistently, including the standard that needs to be met, the timing of the assessment, how to grade a student, the necessary documentation, and when to contact the university.
•  A clear plan to use should underperformance become an issue.

Considerations from the student perspective

As a student supervisor, it is worth reflecting on how students experience placement-based assessment versus university-based assessments. This is illustrated in below:

On the commencement of the placement, the student’s supervisor(s) should confirm that the student understands:

• the purpose of assessment so that they can demonstrate learning and skill development.  
• the process for assessment on placement.
• the process for the management of underperformance (should it arise).

Considerations from the supervisor’s perspective

Assessment can also be daunting for the supervisor, as supervisors often juggle multiple responsibilities in addition to student supervision. Service delivery to patients also needs to be prioritised, which may impact student learning, including how and when assessment and feedback occurs.

Supervisors may feel as if they have failed if their student does not meet the standard – this is sometimes referred to as a ‘failure to fail.’ Contributing factors to this phenomenon include:

• Lack of appropriate clients, appropriate caseload, or appropriate diversity of case load.
• Lack of supervisor experience in providing feedback and completing formal assessment.
• Lack of documentation to support assessment decisions.
• Supervisor hesitancy to provide negative or critical assessment.
• Leaving assessment too late during the placement.

References:

Please Note: References remain valid until superseded by later research. The resources referenced here are regularly reviewed and are considered current and relevant to the topics presented.

• Bearman, M., Molloy, E., Ajjawi, R., & Keating, J. (2013). ‘Is there a Plan B?’: clinical educators supporting underperforming students in practice settings. Teaching in Higher Education, 18(5), 531–544. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2012.752732
• Dean, B.A., Sykes, C. How Students Learn on Placement: Transitioning Placement Practices in Work-Integrated Learning. Vocations and Learning 14, 147–164 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-020-09257-x ‘
• Griffith University Clinical Education Resource Manual, (2012). School of Physiotherapy and Exercise Science, Griffith University.
• Smith, M (2013). Assessment of Clinical Learning. In Clinical and Fieldwork Placement in the Health Professions. 2nd Ed. Stagnitti, Schoo & Welch (Eds). Oxford University Press: Melbourne.