Student Engagement and Experience Journal - Issue 1 - OSCE: A Qualitative Study exploring the Healthcare Student’s Experience

Sep 20, 2026

The study explores healthcare students’ experiences of an OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Exam), an assessment where learners demonstrate clinical skills and underpinning knowledge, typically in simulated conditions. Using hermeneutic phenomenology and semi-structured interviews, the research addresses limited prior work on this student perspective. Findings identify three themes: OSCE-related anxiety, preparation as a coping strategy, and simulation as a further anxiety driver. Recommendations focus on appropriate student support, effective preparation planning, and practice-grounded simulation, concluding that students value the OSCE while requiring careful faculty consideration.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Introduction

Methodology

Ethical Issues

Student Engagement and Experience Journal Volume 1, Issue 1 ISSN (online) 2047-9476 DOI 10.7190/seej.v1i1.37 Research Article The Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE): A Qualitative Study exploring the Healthcare Student’s Experience Susan Fidment Faculty of Health and Wellbeing, Nursing and Midwifery Dept, Sheffield Hallam University, Collegiate Crescent Campus, Sheffield, S1 1WB Correspondence should be addressed to Susan Fidment, [susan.fidment@shu.ac.uk](susan.fidment@shu.ac.uk) [Copyright](Copyright) © 2012 Susan Fidment. This is an open access journal article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits the unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract This study explored the healthcare student’s experience of an OSCE (Objective Structured Clinical Exam) . The OSCE is a form of assessment in which the student demonstrates clinical skills, and underpinning knowledge, usually in simulated conditions. Historically, it has originated from medical education, and is now being adopted by other disciplines of healthcare education. Because the OSCE is a new experience for most students, it is important as educators, that we explore this assessment from the perspective of the student. A literature review revealed a paucity of research in this area. Hermeneutic phenomenology was used as this study’s underpinning methodology. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with students. Analysis revealed three main themes: (1) anxiety about the OSCE, (2) preparation was a seen as a coping strategy and (3) simulation was a further cause of anxiety. Recommendations for future practice: are that students need to be supported appropriately. Preparation of students for an OSCE requires effective planning and simulation needs to be grounded in practice. This study concludes that students valued the OSCE as a worthwhile assessment. However there are major concerns for students, which need careful consideration by academic faculty developing this type of assessment. Introduction The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is becoming more prevalent within healthcare education programmes, because it is regarded as a useful method for assessing skills and underpinning knowledge required for practice (Merriman and Westcott 2010) . The OSCE is an assessment technique in which students demonstrate their competence under a variety of simulated conditions (Watson et al. 2002) . Thus, providing evidence that students are competent in those specific skills tested within the exam context. However, the OSCE is avery different experience for students, in comparison to more established methods of assessment, for example: written assignments and continuous assessment in practice. A review of the literature on OSCE details that this assessment method originated from medical education, where it was initially developed during the 1970’s to replace more subjective assessments such as ‘long and short-cases’(Harden et al. 1975) . Therefore, it has become embedded within medical training and has been subjected to further work on assessment reliability and validity (see Chesser et al. 2009; Wallenstein et al. 2010) . However, for other healthcare disciplines, such as nursing, physiotherapy, midwifery, OSCE is a newer form of assessment for many students. It is not usually an assessment that members of an academic faculty experienced. Much of the published literature on OSCEs within other fields of healthcare apart from medicine, largely documents the implementation and evaluation of an OSCE within a variety of programmes (Brand and Schoonheim-Klein 2009; Furlong et al. 2005; Major 2005) . The student perspective was not a main focus of these works, although some had considered aspects of the student experience within the process, and these will be discussed in light of the findings ofthis study. Having d

FAQs

What is the OSCE and why is it important to study from a student perspective?

An OSCE is an assessment method where students demonstrate clinical skills and supporting knowledge, usually under simulated conditions. Because it is a new experience for many students, the study emphasizes understanding the assessment from the learner’s viewpoint.

How was the research conducted?

The study used a qualitative design with hermeneutic phenomenology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with students, and the interview data were analyzed to identify recurring themes.

What themes emerged from the analysis?

The analysis produced three main themes: anxiety about the OSCE, preparation viewed as a coping strategy, and simulation as an additional cause of anxiety.

Sep 20, 2026

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