Perception of Students, Staff and Simulated Patients towards Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) - Volume 11 - Issue 2 - 2019

Sep 20, 2026

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Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is used to assess clinical performance in medical and health profession education, and the study examines how students and staff perceive OSCE as a clinical assessment tool during their clinical years at Suez Canal University. It also investigates staff and medical interns’ ethical concerns about using interns as simulated patients in OSCE stations. Two questionnaires and semi-structured interviews were conducted. Findings showed strong approval of OSCE for performance assessment, validity, and learning value, with staff highlighting the need for specific training and reduced bias through structured implementation.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Development and purpose of OSCE

Principles of objectivity and structure

OSCE in simulated and safe learning environments

Keywords

ORIGINAL ARTICLE Volume 11 Issue 2 2019 DOI: 10.21315/eimj2019.11.2.4 ARTICLE INFO Submitted: 09-04-2019 Accepted: 03-05-2019 Online: 28-06-2019 Perception of Students, Staff and Simulated Patients towards Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) Sally Fouad, Enas Gouda, Asmaa Abdel Nasser, Doaa Kamal Medical Education Department, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, Egypt To cite this article: Fouad S, Gouda E, Abdel Nasser A, Kamal D. Perception of students, staff and simulated patients towards objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) . Education in Medicine Journal. 2019;11(2): 27–42. [https://doi.org/10.21315/eimj2019.11.2.4](https://doi.org/10.21315/eimj2019.11.2.4) To link to this article: [https://doi.org/10.21315/eimj2019.11.2.4](https://doi.org/10.21315/eimj2019.11.2.4) ABSTRACT Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) has been widely used to assess the clinical performance of medical and health profession students. The literature has revealed that OSCE is an effective evaluation tool for evaluating the clinical skills of medical students. The objectives of this study were to investigate perception of the students and staff of OSCE as a clinical assessment tool during their clinical years at the Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University (FOM-SCU) as well asthe perception of both the staff and medical interns regarding their ethical concerns of using medical interns as simulated patients in OSCE stations. Two different questionnaires were used to explore the perception of the students and staff of OSCE; also, semi-structured interviews with the staff and medical interns as simulated patients inside active stations were conducted. The results revealed that 88% of the students agreed that OSCE should remain as a form of performance assessment, and 83% of them agreed that OSCE was a valuable practical exam and provided them a great learning experience. Approximately 80.4% of the staff emphasised that faculty members need specific training to achieve more valid and reliable results when using OSCE as an assessment tool, and 76.5% of them agreed that using OSCE reduced the bias in clinical assessment. Some medical interns agreed to act as simulated patients inside the dynamic stations instead of using real patients. The study population point of view concluded that OSCE is the most valid and reliable tool for assessing the clinical performance of students; however, it requires comprehensive planning and training with collaborative work from all the stakeholders involved in its organisation and implementation. Keywords: OSCE, Simulated patients, Perception, Training, Clinical assessment CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Dr. Asmaa Abdel Nasser, Medical Education Department, Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University, 41111, Ismailia, Egypt | E-mail: [asmaa_mohamed@med.suez.edu.eg](asmaa_mohamed@med.suez.edu.eg) INTRODUCTION The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) was developed to reduce bias in the assessment of clinical competence where various aspects of clinical competence are evaluated in a comprehensive, consistent, and structured manner, paying close attention to the objectivity of the process (1) . The OSCE was hypothesised in the 1960s by Harden and first reported in the British Medical Journal. OSCE has since been used as an existing method of assessing students’clinical performance in medical, dentistry, 􀂔 Malaysian Association of Education in Medicine and Health Sciences and Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia. 2019 This work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) ([http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)). 27 Education in Medicine Journal 2019; 11(2): 27–42 nursing and pharm D. schools worldwide (2) . The method was designed to improve the validity and reliability of assessment of performance, which was previously assessed using other methods of clinical

FAQs

What was the study’s main objective regarding OSCE?

To investigate perceptions of students and staff toward OSCE as a clinical assessment tool, and to explore ethical concerns of using medical interns as simulated patients in OSCE stations.

How were perceptions measured in the study?

Two questionnaires assessed students’ and staff’s perceptions, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with staff and medical interns acting as simulated patients inside active stations.

What did the results indicate about the value and reliability of OSCE?

Most students agreed OSCE should remain a form of performance assessment and provide valuable learning experience, while staff emphasized that specific training improves validity and reliability and that OSCE reduces bias in clinical assessment.

Sep 20, 2026

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