Design and Validation of an integrated Objective Structured Clinical Examination (i-OSCE) for non-surgical aesthetics program

Abstract

Introduction: The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a popular and practical method for evaluating trainee physicians’ competencies. To help assess non-surgical aesthetics students’ critical thinking and relevant abilities, we developed a novel assessment tool based on the OSCE, the i-OSCE (Integrated objective structured Clinical examination).Methods: Initially, an expert panel consisting of 5 Aesthetic Practitioners with over fifteen years of experience and a senior clinical academic were selected to develop a blueprint for i-OSCE. Through this blueprint, essential qualities and skills were identified for the assessment. To ensure the process standardisation, training workshops for examiners and simulated patients were organised. The final i-OSCE consisted of 12 stations (four clinical, four critical thinking, and four rest stations lasting 180 minutes.Results: The Interclass correlation coefficient between the station checklist items was 0.946 (average measure upper bound 0.916, lower bound 0.968; p < 0.00), considered to be significant. The Inter-Item Correlation Matrix among the clinical station checklist and critical thinking checklist items also showed statistical significance. The Pearson correlation coefficient (PCC) used to ascertain the correlation between checklist rating and global rating, yielding a high correlation (0.80 to 0.934).Conclusion: The i-OSCE has been proven to be a useful and reliable assessment tool to evaluate clinical competence and critical thinking in non-surgical aesthetics education.