Assessment of Australian osteopathic learners' clinical competence during workplace learning

Abstract

The literature about the overarching assessment strategy and the tools used to assess learners' clinical competence in the workplace in the allied health disciplines is less extensive than in medicine. In particular, there is very little published about the assessment of osteopathic learner's ability to deliver osteopathic health care. We show cause for the need for a body of work to explore the validity, reliability, fairness and efficacy of the various osteopathic assessment tools to determine an osteopathic learner's clinical competence, capacity and capability in the workplace. We contend future research into assessments tools and practices will assist in confirming an osteopathic student's clinical competence in general as well as during multiple episodes of patient care.