Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) - how to do it seriously despite scarce resources

Sep 20, 2026

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Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) is presented as an assessment format for clinical skills with origins described decades ago and subsequent global spread. The text explains increasing adoption in the German-speaking medical community to strengthen the assessment of medical students’ clinical competence and to widen reliable evaluation methods. It outlines early “economy-style” implementation in Munich and describes a current logistics model that reduces examiner time using standardized patients and parallel assessment by examining physicians. It concludes with the need for careful resource planning, examiner training, and locally tailored OSCE logistics across multiple faculties.

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Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE)

Assessment purpose and global adoption

Munich implementation and logistics model

Resource planning, examiner training, and local rollout

GMS Zeitschrift für Medizinische Ausbildung ISSN 1860-3572 Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE): how todo it seriously despite scarce resources 1 • Martin R Fischer Workshop The OSCE is an assessment format for clinical skills. It has first been described 32 year ago and has spread worldwide since then. The German speaking community is finally adopting the OSCE to emphasize the importance of clinical competence of medical students and to broaden the scope of reliable assessment methods. Different OSCE's have been developed over the last five years allover Germany. Among those, the medical faculty of Munich University comes a long way: The first “economy-style” OSCE was implemented in 1999, enabling one examiner to oversee four examinees simultaneously with a number of inevitable shortcomings and compromises. At present, two students per examiner are managed in Munich because standardized patients are responsible for check-list ratings themselves. The examining physician is present in the same room assessing the second student in parallel. This approach saves substantial examiner time and improves acceptance among busy clinicians. At any rate, the implementation of an OSCE requires careful ressource planning. After the presentation of the basic knowledge on the OSCE format and the Munich experiences, the workshop participants from all four Austrian medical faculties and a German faculty were asked to develop a plan for the logistics of an OSCEparcours in small groups that meets their respective needs. The group work was presented and lead to different results concerning the number of planned stations and examinees, the number of parallel parcours, time sequence, and the obligations ofexaminers. All groups underlined the need for thorough examiners´ training. In summary, the OSCE is under way at all four Austrian faculties and will lead to different local routes of implementation. Corresponding author: • Dr. et MME (Bern) Martin R Fischer, Klinikum der Universität München, Medizinische Klinik-Innenstadt, Ziemssenstraße 1, D-80336 Munich, Germany [fischer.martin@med.uni-muenchen.de](fischer.martin@med.uni-muenchen.de) 1 Klinikum der UniversitätMünchen, Medizinische Klinik-Innenstadt, Munich, Germany ©2007 Fischer; licensee GMS Zeitschrift für Medizinische Ausbildung. This is an Open Access article: verbatim copying and redistribution of this article is permitted in all media for any purpose, provided this notice is preserved with the article's original URL. This article is freely available from [http://www.egms.de/en/journals/zma/2007-24/zma000439.shtml](http://www.egms.de/en/journals/zma/2007-24/zma000439.shtml) Please cite as: Fischer MR. Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE): how to do it seriously despite scarce resources. GMS Z Med Ausbild. 2007;24(3):Doc145 . g2p(G20061212.1) Workshop 1 1. Grazer Konferenz 03.-05. Mai 2007, Salzburg

FAQs

What is the purpose of an OSCE in medical education?

An OSCE is an assessment format designed to evaluate clinical skills. It is used to emphasize clinical competence of medical students and to broaden reliable assessment methods.

How does the Munich OSCE approach reduce examiner workload?

Standardized patients perform checklist ratings, while the examining physician remains in the same room to assess the second student in parallel. This setup saves substantial examiner time and is well accepted among busy clinicians.

What planning steps are necessary to implement an OSCE effectively?

Implementation requires careful resource planning. After basic OSCE knowledge and local experiences are shared, participating faculties develop logistics plans for station numbers, examinees, parallel parcours, time sequence, and examiner obligations, with emphasis on thorough examiner training.

Sep 20, 2026

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