Objective structured clinical examination in radiology

Abstract

There is a growing need for introducing objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) as a part of radiology practical examinations in India. OSCE is an established, reliable, and effective multistation test for the assessment of practical professional skills in an objective and a transparent manner. In India, it has been successfully initiated and implemented in specialties like pediatrics, ophthalmology, and otolaryngology. Each OSCE station needs to have a pre-agreed “key-list” that contains a list of objective steps prepared for uniformly assessing the tasks given to students. Broadly, OSCE stations are classified as “manned” or “unmanned” stations. These stations may include procedure or pictorial or theory stations with clinical oriented contents. This article is one of a series of measures to initiate OSCE in radiology; it analyzes the attributes of OSCE stations and outlines the steps for implementing OSCE. Furthermore, important issues like the advantages of OSCE, its limitations, a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis, and the timing of introduction of OSCE in radiology are also covered. The OSCE format in radiology and its stations needs to be validated, certified, and finalized before its use in examinations. This will need active participation and contribution from the academic radiology fraternity and inputs from faculty members of leading teaching institutions. Many workshops/meetings need to be conducted. Indeed, these collaborative measures will effectively sensitize universities, examiners, organizers, faculty, and students across India to OSCE and help successfully usher in this new format in radiology practical examinations.

Objective structured clinical examination for undergraduates: Is it a feasible approach to standardized assessment in India?

“…We found, as have others,[78] that this method of examining clinical skills is superior to the previously used oral examination in several ways and was preferred, compared with an oral examination, by both faculty members and students in our institution.…”

“…[8] It provides an opportunity to test their attitude and communication skills as well. The clinical competence to be tested is broken down into specific skills, each of which can be tested at a time.…”

Objective structured clinical evaluation as an assessment method for undergraduate chest physical therapy students: a cross-sectional study

“…Traditional methods that are used to assess clinical skills in health science fields have been deemed insufficient 1 , and the paucities noted in this type of evaluation include the lack of objectivity and standardization by the examiners; the inability to test communication skills; the possible practice of favoritism and the failure to predict the future performance of the students 2 . Therefore, the use of more sophisticated examination methods to assess competencies and clinical skills has been suggested 1 .…”

“…In this type of exam, students are assessed in diverse clinical situations. This seems to address the challenge of assessing clinical performance in real-life situations 2 , although these situations are bounded, controlled and pre-defined [5][6][7][8] . The OSCE is considered to be a more effective way to assess problem-solving abilities, critical thinking and communication skills 3 .…”

Clinical competency evaluation of Brazilian chiropractic interns

“…In the OSCE, it is possible to evaluate in the same test a student's skills in the areas of interview, physical examination, diagnosis, and therapeutics. 10,11 The OSCE, introduced by Harden and colleagues in 1975, 12 is a practical method of assessment. The OSCE is currently an evaluation method that is accepted in several medicine programs.…”