PERCEPTION OF MEDICAL STUDENTS AND EXAMINERS TOWARDS OBJECTIVE STRUCTURED CLINICAL EXAMINATION: A FEEDBACK FOR IMPROVEMENT

Abstract

Background  Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is globally used in the assessment of the clinical competency of medical students. Nevertheless, OSCE has to be carefully designed and organised to be fair and reliable. Objectives  The study aimed to observe the perception of medical students and their examiners towards OSCE. Materials and Methods The survey is a cross-sectional study in which a self-administrative questionnaire was designed and filled by 286 third-year students and 64 examiners of the College of Medicine /University of Sulaimani after the end of phase-1 assessment OSCE of 2020-2021. Ethical approval has been obtained from the university. The study data were collected and analysed by SPSS (23.0). Results The response rate was high among the students and examiners; 95.6% (286/299) and 80% (64/80), respectively. The OSCE reliability test was acceptable (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.78-0.81). The proportions of agreed students to the OSCE fairness, tested skills, and minimising the chance of failing were 42.7%, 51.4%, and 33%, respectively; however, 65.8% found the OSCE very stressful. Although 45% of the students felt dissatisfied with the OSCE instructions, 42-58% and 33-39% agreed with the OSCE organisation and performance, respectively. Among the examiners, the majority perceived that the OSCE was fair, well-organised, and timed. Compared to the conventional method, 79.7% of the examiners thought that OSCE was better in various domain assessments, whereas 60.9% found it exhausting.  Conclusion Overall, students’ perception of the OSCE was similarly spread to agree, neutral, and disagree, which was lower than the examiner’s great satisfaction. These results highlighted the necessity of further improvement in future OSCEs.