Assessment Archives

Implementing Coaching in Clinical Settings

Guest: Sherilyn Smith, MD, Professor Emerita of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine and International Coaching Federation Certified Coach

Description: In this episode, Sherilyn Smith returns to our podcast to discuss how to implement coaching in clinical settings. We revisit our discussion about the value of coaching to develop master adaptive learners and then spend time focusing on the specifics of preparing for and conducting coaching conversations with learners, with advice on how to use Aquifer Calibrate, our new formative assessment system.

Additional Resources:

Previous episode with Dr. Smith on coaching

Aquifer Coaching Script

Full show notes can be found here.

The Future of Formative Assessment

Guest: Leslie Fall, MD, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Aquifer and Clinical Professor, Division of Medical Education, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

In this Thought Leader podcast, Leslie Fall shares her inspiration and vision for Calibrate, Aquifer’s new formative assessment system. She reflects, “as educators, we need to own the fact that most of our assessments have been to drive a grade or drive a score and that we have trained our learners to think about assessment as something they need to do well on for grade.” Calibrate aims to shift learners’ focus from doing well on exams to developing the fundamental cognitive skills of caring for patients. This assessment approach promises to be empowering in that it gives learners information they can use to understand what they know and what they don’t know as well as guidance about what to do next to grow as clinicians. It is transformative in that it provides learners a template for a lifelong process of approaching patient care decision-making based on content and calibration.

Full show notes can be found here.

Coaching Conversations: Tips & Tools to Empower Your Learners

Guest: Sherilyn Smith, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine and Chief Academic Officer, Aquifer.

Host: Lynne Robins, PhD, Professor Emerita, Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA.

Description: In this episode, Dr. Sherilyn Smith provides tips on how to prepare for and conduct coaching conversations that develop students into lifelong learners who are able to create plans, take time to reflect, identify personal learning gaps and are motivated to fill those gaps. She explores ways to empower learners to create goals, develop strategies, incorporate feedback, and build on prior knowledge.

Dr. Smith also discusses how Aquifer’s new Calibrate formative assessment system benefits faculty and students by providing information that can inform and enhance their coaching conversations. Calibrate assessments are designed to leverage the concepts of test-enhanced learning and spaced repetition to drive self-directed learning in clinical students. Granular reports provide visibility for faculty and students into student knowledge gaps and certainty misalignment, enabling meaningful mid-clerkship feedback, informing coaching, and providing structured remediation.

Full show notes can be found here.

Assessing Clinical Decision Making with Aquifer’s Internal Medicine Exam

Guest: Valerie Lang, Associate Professor of Medicine, Associate Professor of Clinical Nursing, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, and Academic Director of Assessment of Clinical Decision Making, Aquifer.

Dr. Valerie Lang was instrumental in the development and validation of the Aquifer Internal Medicine Clinical Decision Making Exam, which assesses learners’ clinical reasoning and decision making and is free to subscribers of Aquifer’s Internal Medicine course. In this podcast, Dr. Lang explains why the exam was developed and the benefits of integrating it into an overall assessment program to achieve a more comprehensive picture of students’ clinical competence.

Full show notes can be found here.