Objective structured clinical examination: an overview

Abstract

Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is gaining wide-spread recognition as a means of assessing the clinical skills and other aspects of competence of health professionals. OSCE is rapidly replacing other forms of assessment at all levels of medical and health professional education. Since its development its use has become widespread as the standard for performance based assessment, particularly in undergraduate examinations. OSCE has been in practice in many parts of the world with favorable outcomes and has proven to be a reliable and valid assessment tool. It has been adapted to assess multiple skills like physical examination, history taking, communication skills, technical skills and interpretation of laboratory results, radiographs and ECG etc. The use of more complex cardiovascular simulators and anatomical models has further expanded the skills that can be tested by OSCE. Although it demonstrates certain advantages over other forms of assessment but has proved to be labor-intensive and time consuming. At present it is successfully being used in Pakistan for undergraduate and postgraduate examinations at various medical schools.