The Use of OSCEs to Assess Communication Skills in Undergraduate Medical Students Dr Thomas JB Kropmans
Aug 20, 2015
The Use of OSCEs to Assess
Communication Skills in
Undergraduate Medical Students Dr Thomas JB Kropmans
Communication skills (CS) high impact upon
quality of health care.
Labour intense paper based process during last
30 years
30 % errors in educational decision making
process
Communication Skills in Medicine
3
Systematic review Records identified through
database searches (n=1998)
Records after duplicate removal (n=1358)
Records after filtering (n=1290)
Exclusion by applying Boolean logic
• NOT dentist* (n=10)
• NOT veterinary (n=7)
• NOT pharmac* (n=51)
Potentially relevant studies (n=87)
Reasons for exclusion
• Irrelevant topic (n=613)
• Not an undergraduate OSCE (n=557)
• Duplicates (n=20)
• Non English articles (n=13)
Reasons for exclusion
• Not an OSCE (n=48)
• No validity / reliability (n=5)
Critically reviewed studies (n=34)
Automated duplicate removal (n=640)
Heterogeneity of measurement instruments limits
comparability
Comparison of student competence across
institutions and assessment (OSCE) settings is
required
Universal adoption of a standardized
Communication Skills measurement instrument is
recommended (Academic Medicine September
2013)
Communication Skills in Medicine
Objective Structured Clinical
Examinations e.g. OSCE
Station 4
Station 1 Station 2 Station 3
ExaminerPatient Student
Waiting Area –
To be Examined
Student
Station 5Station 6Station 7Waiting Area -
Examined
Secretary
Desk
StudentStudentStudent
Student
StudentStudentPatient Student Patient Student
Patient StudentPatient StudentPatient StudentPatient Student
Student Examiner Patient Secretary Flow of Students
Examiner Examiner
Examiner Examiner Examiner Examiner
Tablet/PDA
Web Server/Database
Web Server/Central
Database
100 students X 10 stations = 1000 forms
30% pass/fail decisions based upon error!
Three weeks of administration time
Station 4
Station 1 Station 2 Station 3
ExaminerPatient Student
Waiting Area –
To be Examined
Student
Station 5Station 6Station 7Waiting Area -
Examined
Secretary
Desk
StudentStudentStudent
Student
StudentStudentPatient Student Patient Student
Patient StudentPatient StudentPatient StudentPatient Student
Student Examiner Patient Secretary Flow of Students
Examiner Examiner
Examiner Examiner Examiner Examiner
Tablet/PDA
Web Server/Database
Web Server/Central
Database
Of 1000 forms 300 contains errors
Low Cronbach’s Alpha (< 0.8 poor)
Pass mark of 50%?
Qpercom Ltd ‘Better assessment of
better doctors’ since 2008
30 % based upon error