We found this process to be acceptable to all parties and relatively simple to perform. It helped us to define our preferred procedures for teaching medical interviewing skills using the fishbowl method. The process of gauging participant opinion to develop teaching guidelines is appropriate for use by other institutions to inform their teaching practices in the fishbowl technique, although the nature of the guidelines may differ across teaching settings. Further research is required to determine if the implementation of these guidelines improves student satisfaction with fishbowl tutorials.

BackgroundTo ensure the rigour of objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) in assessing medical students, medical school educators must educate examiners with a view to standardising examiner assessment behaviour. Delivering OSCE examiner training is a necessary yet challenging part of the OSCE process. A novel approach to implementing training for current and potential OSCE examiners was trialled by delivering large-group education sessions at major teaching hospitals.MethodsThe ‘OSCE Roadshow’ comprised a short training session delivered in the context of teaching hospital ‘Grand Rounds’ to current and potential OSCE examiners. The training was developed to educate clinicians about OSCE processes, clarify the examiners’ role and required behaviours, and to review marking guides and mark allocation in an effort to standardise OSCE processes and encourage consistency in examiner marking behaviour. A short exercise allowed participants to practise marking a mock OSCE to investigate examiner marking behaviour after the training.ResultsOSCE Roadshows at four metropolitan and one rural teaching hospital were well received and well attended by 171 clinicians across six sessions. Unexpectedly, medical students also attended in large numbers (n=220). After training, participants’ average scores for the mock OSCE clustered closely around the ideal score of 28 (out of 40), and the average scores did not differ according to the levels of clinical experience.ConclusionThe OSCE Roadshow demonstrated the potential of brief familiarisation training in reaching large numbers of current and potential OSCE examiners in a time and cost-effective manner to promote standardisation of OSCE processes.

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