141st APHA Annual Meeting

In This section

289586
Predictors of performance in the third acupuncture comprehensive exam at the college of acupuncture and oriental medicine at scu

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Lawrence (Lung-Sheng) Hsiao, MS , College of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, Southern California University of Health Sciences, Whittier, CA
Sivarama Prasad Vinjamury, MD , College of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, Southern California University of Health Sciences, Whittier, CA
Eric (Lung-Cheng) Hsiao, PhD , College of Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine, Southern California University of Health Sciences, Whittier, CA
Ju-Tzu Li, MD, MPH , School of Acupucnture and Oriental medicine, Southern California Unversity of Health Sciences, Whittier, CA
Acupuncture Comprehensive Examination (ACE) is a three-phase examination internal benchmark tool for students in 3-year (9-term) masters program of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine at Southern California University SCU, which is taken in terms 4, 7 and 9 (ACEI, II and III). ACEIII written exam consists of 200 questions in 5 areas. Patient Assessment (30%), Developing a Diagnostic Impression (20%), Providing Acupuncture treatment (25%), prescribing Herbal Medicinals(20%), Regulations of Public Health and Safety (10%). The objective of this study is to identify academic and non-academic predictors of success in the ACE III written exam at Southern California University. Specifically, we are interested to know if the GPA in the term they take the exam as well as the Cumulative GPA in the program at the time of taking the exam will have any effect on their success in ACE exam. Similarly, we are also interested to know if gender, ethnicity, age, educational background and their performance in the prior ACE I and ACE II exam will have any influence over their ACE III exam performance. Students, who took ACEIII exam at SCU between spring 2010 and spring 2013 will be included in this retrospective data analysis.

We believe that by identifying the predictors of performance, we will be able to prepare the students better to improve their success in this exam as well as the external licensing exams. The results may also help in restructuring all ACE exams.

Learning Areas:
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice

Learning Objectives:
Describe the process of conducting a comprehensive assessment of students in an Acupuncture Program Explain the importance of comprehensive assessment Discuss the academic and non-academic factors that are responsible for student success in an acupuncture comprehensive exam

Keywords: Education, Assessments

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: N/A

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been the chair of Acupuncture Comprehensive Exam for years, among my teaching experience and education background has been the development of strategies for ACE in Acupuncture college of SCU.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.