Perception of Students, Staff & Simulated Patients Towards OSCE at FOM-SCU_EGYPT
Abstract
Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) has been widely used in the assessment of medical and all health profession students ' clinical performance. The literature revealed that it is an effective evaluation tool for medical students ' clinical skills. The study objectives were to investigate the students' and staff’s perception towards OSCE as a clinical assessment tool in the clinical years at the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University (FOM-SCU), as well as, the perception of both the staff and medical interns regarding the ethical concerns of using medical interns as simulated patients in OSCE stations. Two different questionnaires were used to explore the students’ and staff perception towards the OSCE; also, semi-structured interviews with the staff and medical interns as simulated patients inside active stations were conducted. The results revealed that 88% of the students agreed that OSCE should remain as a form of performance assessment and 83% of them agreed that OSCE was a valuable practical exam and provided them a great learning experience. 80.4% of the staff emphasized that faculty members need specific training to achieve more valid and reliable results when using OSCE as an assessment tool, also 76.5% of them agreed that using OSCE reduce the bias in clinical assessment. Some of the medical interns were agreed to act as simulated patients inside the dynamic stations instead of using too ill real patients. The study population point of view concluded that OSCE is the most valid and reliable tool in assessing students' clinical performance, however, it needs comprehensive planning and training with collaborative work from all stakeholders involved in its organization and implementation.
