Advancing the assessment of clinical competence in Latin America - a scoping review of OSCE implementation and challenges in resource-limited settings

Sep 20, 2026

Background Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) underpins competency assessment in health professions, yet across Latin America—an area of constrained resources—implementation patterns and quality evolution remain insufficiently synthesized. This scoping review maps how OSCEs have been applied and evaluates how reported quality indicators changed over time in the region. Methods PubMed, Scopus, WOS, LILACS, and Scielo were searched and evidence was appraised using AMEE guidelines 81/49 and MMERSQI.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

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Armijo-Rivera et al. BMC Medical Education (2025) 25:587 BMC Medical Education [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-07151-5](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-07151-5) RESEARCH Open Access Advancing the assessment of clinical competence in Latin America: a scoping review of OSCE implementation and challenges in resource-limited settings Soledad Armijo-Rivera 1*, Brenda Fuenzalida-Muñoz2, Scarlett Vicencio-Clarke2, Alexandra Elbers-Arce3,4, Sergio Bozzo-Navarrete5, Natasha Kunakov6, Cesar Miranda-Hurtado4,7, Hector Shibao-Miyasato8,9, Jacqueline Sanhueza2, Carla Cornejo2, Alix Soublette2, Ana María Sandoval9, Fresia Cicibel Casas-Bueno7 and Ximena Delgado9 Abstract Background Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is important to assess clinical competencies in health professions. However, in Latin America, a region with limited resources, the implementation and quality of OSCEs remain underexplored despite their increasing use. This study analyses how the OSCE has been applied and how its quality has evolved in Latin America. Methods A scoping review methodology was used, including a search across PubMed, Scopus, WOS, LILACS and Scielo, including studies on the implementation of OSCE in Latin America, written in English, French, Portuguese, or Spanish. Their quality was assessed using the AMEE guidelines 81 and 49 criteria and MMERSQI. Data were extracted regarding OSCE structure, evaluator training, validity, reliability, and the use of simulated patients. Results 365 articles were obtained, of which 69 met the inclusion criteria. The first report on OSCE implementation in the region dates back to 2000. Three countries accounted for 84. 06% of the reports (Chile, Mexico, Brazil) . 68. 12% was applied in undergraduate programs. In this group, the implementation was mainly in Medicine (69 . 57%), with lesser use in physiotherapy (7 . 95%) and nursing (2 . 9%) . The number of stations and duration of each varied, with 18-station circuits being the most common. Evidence of validity and reliability of the OSCE was reported in 26. 09%, feedback to students in 33,33%, and simulated patient training in 37. 68% of the reports. A notable trend in the quinquennial analysis is the increased use of high-fidelity simulations and the shift towards remote OSCEs during the pandemic. The inclusion of inactive stations, inadequate training for simulated patients, and the absence of evidence supporting instrument validation are recurrently reported challenges in OSCE studies. The overall methodological quality has improved, as evidenced by OSCE Committee and Blueprint in nearly 50% of the studies and rising MMERSQI scores, especially in recent years. *Correspondence: Soledad Armijo-Rivera[s.armijo@udd.cl](s.armijo@udd.cl) Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creati](http://creati)[vecommons.org/l](vecommons.org/l)icenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/. Armijo-Rivera et al. BMC Medical Education (2025) 25:587 Pa

FAQs

What is the focus of this study regarding OSCEs in Latin America?

The study analyzes how OSCEs have been implemented in Latin America and how their reported quality has evolved, with attention to challenges in resource-limited settings.

Which databases and quality frameworks were used in the scoping review?

The review searched PubMed, Scopus, WOS, LILACS, and Scielo, and assessed study quality using the AMEE guidelines 81 and 49 criteria and MMERSQI.

What recurring challenges are reported across OSCE studies in the region?

Commonly reported challenges include inactive stations, inadequate training for simulated patients, and the absence of evidence supporting instrument validation.

Sep 20, 2026

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