Comparison of pharmacy student, evaluator, and standardised patient assessment of Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) performance

Abstract

Objective: The study aimed to (1) determine if standardised patient (SP) assessment of student communication differs from faculty assessment and (2) identify factors that may affect their assessment scoring since differences between evaluator scoring could impact students’ learning and feedback. Methods: Students completed four OSCEs in spring 2022. Communication skills were scored using a global assessment rubric completed by a faculty evaluator, SP, and student. SPs and students rated their confidence in student recommendations on a scale of 1-5 (1=lowest; 5=highest). Spearman correlation and Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed rank tests were used for analysis. Results: SP global assessment scores were statistically significantly higher than faculty scores. SP global assessment and confidence scores were strongly correlated. Conclusion: Differences in OSCE scoring among evaluator types and factors that may impact scoring are important to explore. SP scores were consistently higher than faculty scores, which should be considered when using OSCEs as assessments.