Student midwives' views of the objective structured clinical examination

Abstract

Educational researchers have established beyond doubt that assessment greatly influences learning. However, the assessment of practical skills is complex and presents difficulties. Research in other disciplines has shown that the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) is an effective evaluation tool to assess practical skills. The creation of a clinical skills laboratory within the educational setting, that simulates clinical reality, can enable experiential learning to occur. Most OSCE research so far has been focused on medical and nursing students, not midwifery students. This work focuses on student midwives’ views of the OSCE in order that future OSCE processes could be advanced. Three main themes to emerge from the data were: practicalities of running the OSCE, preparation for the OSCE assessment and the impact of assessors, volunteers and simulation on OSCE performance, all of which impacted on levels of anxiety for the student midwives.