Self-assessment in pharmacy and health science education and professional practice.

Self-assessment is an important skill necessary for continued development of a health care professional from student pharmacist throughout their professional career. This paper reviews the literature on student and practitioner self-assessment and whether this skill can be improved upon. Although self-assessment appears to be a skill that can be improved, both students and professionals continue to have difficulty with accurate self-assessment. Experts' external assessment of students should remain the primary method of testing skills and knowledge until self-assessment strategies improve. While self-assessment is important to lifelong learning, external assessment is also important for practitioners' continuing professional development.