Diagnosing Your Learner: Strategies for Assessment that Support Individualized Growth

Sonja Solomon, MD

No registration required. Please email aoe@med.unc.edu to confirm your attendance. You can log in from any device:

• Adobe:  VA BOSTON EDUCATION  (http://va-eerc-ees.adobeconnect.com/fdt/).
• Call-in number for audio: 1.800.767.1750; 33694#; please mute your line

Purpose Statement
This live, virtual, knowledge-based webinar will teach specific frameworks and strategies for
“diagnosing” learners in the clinical training environment. Healthcare professionals in
educational settings must regularly interface with learners at various stages of clinical
competence. Due to the heterogeneous needs and abilities of our learners, it is essential that
clinical educators possess concrete yet pragmatic strategies for assessing those individual needs
and abilities. Doing so allows a clinical teacher to deliver the right teaching, for the right learner,
at the right time. This both supports the individualized growth of that learner and enables the
productive and efficient use of time on the part of the busy clinical supervisor. Barriers to
effective learner diagnosis include: (1) the lack of tools, frameworks and shared vocabulary, (2)
cultural norms and negative connotations around assessment and feedback and (3) lack of
opportunities to directly observe learners interacting with patients. This webinar will impart
specific frameworks for learner diagnosis and practical strategies for adopting those frameworks
within the clinical learning environment. Using these frameworks, we will then explore how to
tailor one’s teaching approach to the developmental stage of the learner. We will also explore
issues of bias in learner assessment and strategies for mitigating bias. This training applies to
healthcare team members.

Target Audience
Physicians (MDs and DOs),Non-Physician Healthcare Staff, Registered Nurses and Advanced
Practice Nurses, Psychologists, Pharmacists, Optometrists, Registered Dieticians, Social
Workers, Counselors, Licensed Professional Counselors, Therapists, Dentists, Healthcare
Executives, Physician Assistants, Speech or Language Pathologists and their support staff, and
Audiologists, who mentor and/or train resident and intern staff.
Secondary audience may include Occupational Therapists and their assistants as well as well as
all staff supporting faculty who train resident and intern staff.

Outcome/Objectives
At the conclusion of this educational program, learners will be able to:
1. describe the benefits to performing real-time, formative learner assessment in the clinical
training environment;
2. discuss advantages and disadvantages to existing frameworks for learner assessment;
3. describe an intuitive and pragmatic framework for real-time learner assessment in the clinical
training environment; and
4. identify teaching strategies and goals based on the developmental stage of the learner using
case examples.