The Faculty of Health Sciences, 水果派 of Nigeria (NOUN), has conducted practicum assessment test for the students of 300, 400 and 500 levels in the Department f Punic Health at the Kaduna聽Study Centre.
Dean of the faculty, Prof. Shehu Usman Adamu, said the students who converged on the centre on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, were drawn from Kaduna, Kagoro,聽and the Nigerian Air Force Special聽 Study Centres after their field exercises and the subsequent acquisition of practical experience.
He told聽水果派 News聽in Kaduna that 鈥渢he university has changed the mode of assessment in which hitherto we send the students to the hospitals and other health related institutions where they acquire the experience and then the preceptors score them and then the university moderates the scores.
鈥淭he Vice-Chancellor insisted that聽there must be a uniform method of scoring which generated to this written test. 聽It has been observed that it has increased the efficiency and also put聽the university in the same page all over the study centres.聽This is the scoring method.鈥
According to him, with the new method, the scoring of the practicum is no longer at the discretion of the preceptor, desk officer or any facilitator, as it is now聽based on the scores obtained by a student.
The dean noted the great effort of the NOUN VC towards improving the method of assessment in the department.
鈥淟ooking at it, there were sets of questions which covered the entire weekly activities of the practicum and the entire period of the activity, which make the student sit up and it has increased their knowledge and at least the method has pushed them to read harder because they know they are coming for a written test.
鈥淢oreover, it has really improved the performance and skills of the students聽and assisted the department in arriving at a uniform method of assessment so no more discretional assessment for practicum. Kudos to the Vice-Chancellor for suggesting that to the department,鈥 said the dean.
He therefore maintained that the exercise was a success and called on the students to use this opportunity to acquire more hands-on skills.
He advised the students to change their units in a situation they were posted to the same hospital for a practicum where they work. 鈥淚f you were in the ward then you should go to a different unit聽to acquire additional knowledge.鈥
According to Adamu, based on his interaction with the students, a substantial number of them were inclined to the increase in the number of weeks for the practicum instead of the initial three or six weeks.
He appreciated the Kaduna Study Centre director, Mr. Yusuf Abdullahi and his staff for their immense contribution towards making sure that the exercise became a success.