Attitudes of Academic Staff and Students towards the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in Obstetrics and Gynaecology

Abstract

Introduction: The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology first implemented the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in the final examinations in 2003 academic year to replace the long case and oral examination on short cases and to evaluate the attitude of staff and medical students towards OSCE as a method of clinical assessment. Methods: Three main groups were evaluated: 1) 96 medical students at their final examination in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and were assessed with OSCE; 2) 30 Kuwait trained doctors who were assessed with OSCE during their undergraduate training; 3) academic staff made up internal faculty staff (12) and external examiners. Results: Perception of examination was highly positive among the students: Quality of instruction and organization (96%), transparency of the process (96%), method of assessing clinical skills (90%), patients' care (89%), assessment of knowledge (84%) and communication skills (84%). Significantly, more of the trainee doctors that had OSCE during their training (92%) had positive perception of OSCE than those trainees (65%) that did not (P < 0.05). Both the internal and external examiners had an equally high perception of OSCE (83% versus 92%; P = 0.85), citing less examiner fatigue and more enjoyable for examiners and students. Conclusion: OSCE may be a more appropriate choice for graduation examinations of compared to the conventional clinical examination. It is expensive in terms of manpower requirement. There should be continuing research to reduce stress to students and examiners.

<p>An evaluative study of objective structured clinical examination (OSCE): students and examiners perspectives</p>

“…The majority of the students (66.7%) reported that they needed more time at stations whereas examiners felt that the time at stations was adequate (59.1%). A similar difference of opinion was also observed between students (41.7%) and examiners (11.1%) in a study conducted by Omu et al11 in Kuwait. Some studies have raised concerns that time was a problem and suggested that they focus on restricting time but rather should concentrate on how well students can perform 38,39.…”

“…In both campuses, students expressed some concerns regarding OSCE, e.g., stressful and intimidating event and insufficient time to complete the stations. Similar acceptance and concerns of the OSCE have been previously described by the students in other medical schools worldwide 11,12,28,29…”

“…Study instruments for student10,21,25 and examiner11,19 were designed based on questionnaires used in previous studies. The student questionnaire evaluated perception of the recently completed OSCE under the following domains using Likert scales as follows: attributes from strongly disagree (score of 1) to strongly agree (score of 5); quality from not at all (score of 1) to a greater extent (score of 4); validity and reliability from not at all (score of 1) to a greater extent (score of 4); organization from very poor (score of 1) to excellent (score of 5); and comparison of the OSCE, multiple choice questions (MCQ), essay/short answer (SAQ) and clerkship assessment formats on 3-point scales in terms of their level of difficulty, fairness, learning opportunities and most preferable usage during clinical years.…”

“…It was therefore conceptualized that any positive or negative perception on the implementation of the Medicine and Therapeutics exit OSCE may affect students’ anxiety and stress level as well as their performance in such a high stakes examination. Very few research studies have investigated the examiners perception of the OSCE process and on their role as examiners for this process 11,18,19. Examiners' opinions are required to be sought as examiners play a critical role in executing the OSCE, contribute to the design of the OSCE stations, identify the competences to be tested, and provide individual or group feedback to the students after examination 20.…”

Comparing objective structured clinical examinations and traditional clinical examinations in the summative evaluation of final-year medical students

“…This supports the fact that OSCE is a fairer assessment tool. [ 7 13 22 ] The low reliability of the traditional clinical examination meant a significant variation between individual student's score in long and short cases. The student's scores is not consistently low or high as the case might be.…”