Student and faculty perception of objective structured clinical examination: A teaching hospital experience

Abstract

The primary objective of this study was to explore student and faculty perception of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) to assess the clinical competence of 5^th year medical students. <b>Methods:</b> Two validated tools were used to survey students' and faculty perception of the OSCE as an assessment tool. The questionnaires were self-administered and handed to the students immediately after the OSCE was conducted. Subjects were 29 female students who had completed their 3-week Internal Medicine rotation and 15 faculty members who had participated in evaluating the students. The response rate was 100%. The OSCE comprised of 21 active stations involving skills like history taking standardized patients were used, physical examination, and data interpretation for which real patients were used. <b>Results:</b> Majority of students, 63.2% indicated that the OSCE assessed their skills fairly. This was also true for 80% thought the OSCE was a fair method of assessing students' skills as well as a better assessment tool than the traditional long/short case exams. <b>Conclusion:</b> The OSCE was positively perceived by 5^th year medical students and faculty members as a tool that can fairly assess students' clinical skills.