Adapting the OSCE to the times of the COVID-19 pandemic. A look at the e-OSCE from the students’ perspective

Abstract

a completely remote OSCE (e-OSCE) was conducted for the first time using the Microsoft Teams platform. 255 test takers were tasked with presenting their communication and clinical skills in order to assess clinical reasoning. A i m: Analysis of the assessment of the OSCE adaptation to the requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic at the Department of Medical Educations in the form of the e-OSCE from the students' perspective. M e t h o d s: Discussion of the OSCE modification was carried out among 6 th -year medical students and graduates undergoing validation of their foreign medical degrees. In order to assess students' opinions of the e-OSCE, we used questionnaires. The Statistica 12.0 program was used to analyse the results. R e s u l t s: According to 91.57% of respondents, the e-OSCE was well-prepared. 60% of students strongly agree and 29.47% rather agree that the order of the stations was appropriate and clear. A majority of respondents rated the e-OSCE as fair. 66.32% of respondents strongly agree and rather agree that the proportions of communication and clinical skills were appropriate. The vast majority of the participants of the exam (81.05%) had enough time for individual stations. A statistically significant (p <0.0001) correlation was found between the type of classes and preparation for the e-OSCE. For 61.05% of respondents, the Laboratory Training of Clinical Skills course was the best preparation for students taking the e-OSCE. Taking into account the stressfulness of the OSCE, only 15.96% of students found the online form more stressful than the traditional (in-person) exam. C o n c l u s i o n s: The e-OSCE in students' opinions was well-organized. Informing test-takers prior to the e-OSCE about the role of invigilators assessing individual stations should be improved. The e-OSCE has been proven to be suitable for assessing a wide range of material and validating communication and clinical skills in appropriate proportions. The e-OSCE is fair according to examinees' opinion. The study proves that even in a pandemic, it is possible to prepare an online exam without exposing examiners and examinees to the dangers posed by COVID-19.

Feasibility of clinical examination scenarios under pandemic conditions

“…Das Prüfungsklima wurde insgesamt als angenehm empfunden. Im Gegensatz zu einer reinen Online-OSCE, wie in mehreren Studien untersucht [ 9 , 14 , 26 , 28 ], erfolgte diese virtuelle Prüfung als Präsenzveranstaltung mit hohem logistischem und personellem Aufwand. Da virtuelle Prüfungssituationen bis dato in der HNO-Heilkunde gänzlich unbekannt oder zumindest nicht eindeutig definiert waren, erschien eine hybride Konstellation vorteilhaft.…”

Feasibility and reliability of the pandemic-adapted online-onsite hybrid graduation OSCE in Japan

“…Many educational facilities for healthcare professionals, including residents, medical, nursing, pharmacy, and dentistry students, rapidly transitioned from traditional in-person OSCEs to virtual OSCEs (also described as remote OSCE, online OSCE, or tele-OSCE) (Felthun et al, 2021a;Malau-Aduli et al, 2022). These virtual OSCEs are satisfactory, feasible, and cost-effective as per survey results (Langenau et al, 2014;Shaban et al, 2021;Shaiba et al, 2021), questionnaire feedbacks (Skrzypek et al, 2022;Motkur et al, 2022;Garofalo et al, 2023), empirical analysis (Felthun et al, 2021b;Minty et al, 2022), and descriptive qualitative studies (Shorbagi et al, 2022;Saad et al, 2022;Thampy et al, 2022;). Although three studies assessed the reliability of virtual OSCEs by calculating Cronbach's alphas, and they were about 0.80 (Oliven et al, 2011(Oliven et al, , 2021Porto et al, 2023), a reliability analysis based on G-theory is yet to be reported (Kunutsor et al, 2022).…”