Abstract
Advanced health assessment (AHA) serves as the foundational course in advanced practice nurse education in which students apply clinical decision-making skills to gather appropriate subjective and objective data and to begin to formulate diagnostic hypotheses. Summative objective structured clinical exams (OSCEs) have been used in AHA courses to evaluate students' clinical competence. After implementing summative OSCEs in AHA, we found that students struggled with evaluations requiring critical thinking skills and subsequently designed a teaching tool to address this gap. An Episodic Tool was created for the six main body systems with a chief complaint and three age and gender combinations. In small groups, students used the tool to identify pertinent history and physical exam components for a specific age and gender. A faculty-facilitated group discussion followed. A pre/post design was used in this quality improvement project to compare OSCE and oral clinical exam (OCE) scores. OCEs were used in 2020 due to COVID-19 limitations. There was a statistically significant increase of 7% in the mean OCE/OSCE scores after implementation of the tool (p<.001). Qualitative feedback from students and faculty suggested the tool effectively enhanced students' critical thinking and clinical decision-making skills and promoted consistency across course sections.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
