Using OSCE as an Assessment Tool for Clinical Skills
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- Category: Vol. 77, June 2009
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Using OSCE as an Assessment Tool for Clinical Skills: Nursing Students' Feedback,AMINA M.R. EL-NEMER and NAHED KANDEEL
Abstract
Background: Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) has been widely used in the assessment of students' clinical performance. Research revealed that it is an effective evaluation tool for nursing students' clinical skills. The OSCE was first introduced into Faculty of Nursing, Mansoura Uni-versity by the Maternity and Gynecology Department which used it as an assessment tool for third year nursing students' clinical performance following their completion of Maternity and Gynecology Course during the 2007-2008 academic year. The successful outcome of this application encouraged Critical Care Nursing Department to use the OSCE in evaluating first year students' clinical skills following their completion of First Aid Course.
Objective: The main aim of this study was to investigate nursing students' feedback about the OSCE as an assessment tool for their clinical skills.
Design, Material Methods: This study has a cross sectional descriptive design. A convenient sample of 724 of undergrad-uate nursing students was involved in this study (3 10 of third year nursing students and 414 of first year nursing students). The questionnaire developed by Pierre et al. (2004) was adapted in this study. The questionnaire assesses nursing students' evaluation of the OSCE attributes, the quality of OSCE performance, and OSCE scoring and objectivity.
Results: The results of this study indicate that OSCE has been accepted by the majority of nursing students as an evaluation tool for their clinical performance. For most students OSCE was fair, covered a wide range of knowledge, minimized the chance of failing and highlighted areas of weaknesses. Going through the OSCE was a useful practical experience for most students. However, several students felt that OSCE was very stressful.
Conclusion: The feedback received regarding this evalu-ation tool provides evidence that OSCE is an acceptable, useful assessment tool for nursing students' clinical perfor-mance. Such feedback is considered valuable for further development and enhancement of OSCE.