A proposed feedback model for the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in health and medical education

Abstract

What was the educational challenge? The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) is used extensively in health and medical education to assess clinical competence. While OSCEs are not primarily designed for individual feedback, they provide an opportunity to generate meaningful and constructive feedback that students can use to reflect on areas of weakness (and strength). The most timely and effective way to incorporate individual feedback following a summative OSCE continues to be explored. What was the solution? This paper describes a novel OSCE feedback model which uses readily available summative assessment data to calculate 10% index scores. This provides information about relative station difficulty and relative individual student performance. How was the solution implemented? An individualised feedback report was provided to every student after the OSCEs. This enables identification of stronger and weaker performance areas and composite skills, which can be utilised by all students to direct future learning. What lessons were learned that are relevant to a wider global audience? Providing timely, individual actionable feedback to every student following a summative OSCE is possible without impacting the examination process or examiner burden. What are the next steps? A study is planned to determine the utilisation of this feedback by students and it’s impact as a qualitative self-assessment exercise.