Assessing the quality of Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) reports in pharmacy education: A review of the literature

Abstract

This article was migrated. The article was not marked as recommended. Objective: The purpose of this systematic review was to identify and assess the quality of published reports of objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) in pharmacy education. Methods: English-language articles published between 2000-2015 describing OSCEs in pharmacy education were included. Search terms included ‘pharmacy education’, ‘objective structured clinical examination’, ‘clinical skills assessment’, and ‘clinical skills examination’. A previously published checklist of reporting standards for OSCEs in medical education was used to assess the quality of published OSCE reports in specific areas: encounter characteristics, standardized participant (SPs) characteristics, training methods, and behavioral methods. Results: Forty-two articles were identified for inclusion. Forty (95%) articles reported the number of encounters with the median being 3.0 (SD=4.7). All articles reported the level of learner participating, with most US pharmacy schools conducting OSCEs with third year pharmacy students. Most articles reported training for SPs prior to the OSCE (n=23, 55%), however most did not report if training was provided to OSCE raters (n=22, 52%). Thirty-six (86%) articles reported the type of behavior measure used during OSCEs, however almost half (n=18, 42%) did not report the scale used. Few articles (n=19, 45%) reported if psychometric properties had been obtained for the specific behavior measures used.  Conclusions: Overall, published descriptions of OSCEs are varied and inconsistent. Most OSCEs conducted in US pharmacy schools were in third year pharmacy students. Just over half of published articles reported OSCE training. The lack of published psychometric properties may make implementation of valid OSCEs difficult.