Students’ perception on objective structured clinical examination

Abstract

Introduction: Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a reliable and an established and effective multi station test for the assessment of practical skills in an objective and a transparent manner. Though it is a widely accepted new method of clinical evaluation in MBBS, students’ view on OSCE is an unhandled area. This study tries to explore students’ opinion on OSCE and as well as it rate of acceptance in MBBS Students. Materials and Method:A semi structured questionnaire was administered to final year MBBS part II students. The data was entered in MS Excel and analysed using SPSS version 16. Results are expressed as proportions. Results:The mean age of students was 22.58±0.79 SD. 58.8% of the students felt OSCE is an easier method of examination comparing to the traditional clinical examination. They expressed it as an exam that assesses all the domains of learning, more knowledge assessed in short span of time, questions are framed to the point, and it evaluates all areas of the subject. 64.7% rated OSCE as an easy exam compared to the conventional examination. 52.9% of the students agreed that OSCE helps to identify their weak areas in clinical skills. 64.7% agreed that OSCE is a good method to identify their weak areas in practical skills. All students said that instructions given prior to the OSCE exam are very useful. It gives clarity and overall idea about the different stations. Conclusion: Majority of students found OSCE as an easy exam. It helps to identify their weak areas in clinical and practical skills. Keywords: OSCE, Clinical skill, Practicals