Remote OSCE Experience: What First Year Pharmacy Students Liked, Learned, and Suggested for Future Implementations

Abstract

During the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, many schools quickly transitioned their teaching and assessment strategies to online formats. In Spring 2020, a 3-station remote Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) was implemented for first-year pharmacy students. The day following the remote OSCEs students answered three open-text prompts about the remote OSCE experience: (1) “I liked...”, (2) “I learned…”, and (3) “I suggest…”. Responses were open-coded and frequency counts were calculated to determine the most prevalent codes. Concept maps were created to visualize and explore connections between the codes. Out of 157 students, 156 students completed the reflection assignment, a 99.36% response rate. The three major themes in the Liked data were: Logistics (n = 65, 41.7%), Differences In-person Versus Remote (n = 59, 37.8%), and Skill Development (n = 43, 27.6%). The three major themes in the Learned data were: Technology (n = 66, 42.3%), Communication (n = 58, 37.2%), and Skill Development (n = 56, 35.9%). The three major themes in the Suggest data were: Logistics (n = 89, 57.1%), Technology (n = 31, 19.9%), and Continuation of Remote OSCE (n = 31, 19.9%). Overall, the remote OSCE experience was well-received, and students described it as applicable to their future pharmacy practice. Future work should explore the design, implementation, and outcomes of remote OSCEs.

Virtual OSCE: Experience and challenges with a large cohort of pharmacy students

“…Furthermore, vOSCE requires the proper utilisation of qualified human resources and people experienced in handling technology tools, including the availability of Information Communication Technology (ICT) support and virtual platforms that best suits the examiners, students, simulated patients, and faculty staff (Tabatabai, 2020). Virtual platforms, such as Google Meet, Cisco Webex, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, have been utilised by several educational institutions to conduct vOSCE (Elnaem et al, 2021;Hopwood et al, 2021;Savage et al, 2021). The selection of a virtual platform must consider institution or setting-specific factors.…”

Enhancing Tele-Simulation during OSCE: Incorporating Feedback from Standardized Patients

“…SP educators need to train SPs with emphasis to non verbal cues. The candidates also need orientation and support in developing their verbal and non-verbal communication skills in Tele simulation OSCE [10].…”

Educating pharmacy students through a pandemic: Reflecting on our COVID-19 experience

“… 2 , 25 Technological innovations in the delivery of examinations have been widely adopted, and have met with varied degrees of student acceptance. 26 , 27 Changes to assessment procedures, both proctored and unproctored, increase student-reported stress. 28 Students found it difficult to answer calculations questions without access to rough work paper and their own calculator, which were restricted by proctoring requirements.…”