Abstract
Abstract Introduction: Problems related to the clinical abilities of physiotherapy students are not always identified throughout the educational process and might only be observed when these future professionals have to treat patients. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) includes a problematization approach and can be used in Health Sciences teaching to help this identification before internship practices. However, there are few studies on its use in Physiotherapy. Objective: To gather evidence of the OSCE use to evaluate clinical abilities in Physiotherapy teaching. Method: Articles published from 2000 to 2016 were surveyed in the Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS) (Virtual Health Library), Centro Latino-Americano e do Caribe de Informação em Ciências da Saúde (BIREME) (Latin-American and Caribbean Health Sciences Information Center), PubMed, Scielo and Web of Science, using the descriptors “educational assessment”, “assessment methods”, “objective structured clinical examination”, “clinical competence”, “professional competence”, “clinical skills”, “student competence”, “student skills”, “physiotherapy” and the Booleans “OR” and “AND”. Results: The initial number of identified publications was 3,242. From these, seven were included in this review. Two studies were developed in Brazil, four in Australia and one in Canada. The studies were scored 7 to 12 regarding methodologic quality, and 1B and 2B regarding scientific evidence. Conclusion: Students’ clinical abilities were grouped into three classes: cognitive, psychomotor and affective, and four studies described their use. There is very little evidence of the use of OSCE, but the instrument can be applied to evaluate skills and competences in Physiotherapy teaching.
Highlights
Problems related to the clinical abilities of physiotherapy students are not always identified throughout the educational process and might only be observed when these future professionals have to treat patients
The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) includes a problematization approach and can be used in Health Sciences teaching to help this identification before internship practices
The included studies were published in English, Spanish or Portuguese, and were available at the Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS) (Health Virtual Library), Centro Latino-Americano e do Caribe de Informação em Ciências da Saúde (BIREME) (LatinAmerican and Caribbean Health Sciences Information Center), PubMed and Web of Science databases
Summary
Problems related to the clinical abilities of physiotherapy students are not always identified throughout the educational process and might only be observed when these future professionals have to treat patients. The evaluation of university students plays an important role in their initial education, either as a guide of the individual formative trajectory or as an adjustment of formative options It should focus on the knowledge achieved (cognitive skills), and on the psychomotor and affective areas, which jointly configure the necessary professional skills of working as a physiotherapist. The most reliable alternative, according to Newble [7], is the in loco assessment This is not always possible and problems related to skills and attitudes are often only identified when the future professional has to deal with a patient [8,9,10]. Given this context, questioning the evaluation of teaching and learning in the perspective of professional action reinforces the necessary transformation of university education, as pointed out by health education policies
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