Lessons Learned and Preliminary Results from Implementing Simulation-Based Elements in a Clinical Psychology Programme

Abstract

In a clinical psychology training context, there is a need to examine students’ theoretical knowledge as well as their professional competence. One promising method to assess students’ professional competence is the Objective and Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). In this report, we describe and discuss the implementation of OSCE on a clinical psychology programme at a university in Sweden, including lesson learned regarding the structure and content for this examination. We also report on preliminary results, in which we explored students’ perceived competence and worries, and their supervisors’ reports regarding their clinical practicum, in relation to a new curriculum that includes more simulation-based elements (including the OSCE) than the old curriculum. Results showed that students on the new curriculum reported lower levels of perceived competence before the clinical practicum, but increased significantly more over time in comparison to students on the old curriculum. These results are discussed in relation to the potential role of OSCE in clinical psychology students’ development of professional competence. Due to methodological limitations, these results should be interpreted with caution and should be viewed as exploratory. All in all, this report can be viewed as a guideline for implementation of OSCE on similar programmes in psychology.