TITLE:
Attitudes of Academic Staff and Students towards the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in Obstetrics and Gynaecology
AUTHORS:
Alexander Emeakpor Omu, Majedah Komaikh Al-Azemi, Florence Emadinwe Omu, Jehad Al-Harmi, Michael Fidelis Esiekpe Diejomaoh
KEYWORDS:
Academic Staff, Medical Students, Attitude, Perception, Objective Structured Clinical Examination
JOURNAL NAME:
Creative Education,
Vol.7 No.6,
May
19,
2016
ABSTRACT: Introduction: The Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology first
implemented the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in the final
examinations in 2003 academic year to replace the long case and oral examination
on short cases and to evaluate the attitude of staff and medical students towards
OSCE as a method of clinical assessment. Methods: Three main groups were
evaluated: 1) 96 medical students at their final examination in Obstetrics and
Gynaecology and were assessed with OSCE; 2) 30 Kuwait trained doctors who were
assessed with OSCE during their undergraduate training; 3) academic staff made up internal faculty staff (12) and external examiners. Results: Perception of examination was highly positive among the
students: Quality of instruction and organization (96%), transparency of the
process (96%), method of assessing clinical skills (90%), patients’ care (89%),
assessment of knowledge (84%) and communication skills (84%). Significantly,
more of the trainee doctors that had OSCE during their training (92%) had
positive perception of OSCE than those trainees (65%) that did not (P P = 0.85), citing less examiner fatigue
and more enjoyable for examiners and students. Conclusion: OSCE may be a more
appropriate choice for graduation examinations of compared to the conventional
clinical examination. It is expensive in terms of manpower requirement. There
should be continuing research to reduce stress to students and examiners.