Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE): A comparison of interpersonal skill scores with written OSCE scores

Objectives. To compare the interpersonal skill scores evaluated by standardized patients (SPs) with the scores of written objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in assessing medical student performance by OSCE. Methods. A total of 202 fifth year medical students from the Schools of Medicine and Chinese Medicine participated in a 4-problem, 8-station OSCE. Two tracks of the 8-station examination were run simultaneously. The examination was held at the end of the integrated curriculum in the fifth year. Each OSCE problem was divided into two stations, a question station and an answer station; the time limit at each station was 5 minutes. In each question station, students were asked to perform history taking and/or physical examination on a standardized patient who assessed students' interpersonal skills by checklists A (general assessment) and B (clinical skills assessment). Eight senior pediatric residents were recruited to function as SPs. At answer station, the students responded to 3 questions concerning the SP in the preceding question station, this score was taken as written OSCE score. Results. The results revealed that it was appropriate to assess students' interpersonal skills by well-trained resident to function as SPs. The interpersonal skill scores evaluated by SPs significantly correlated with the written OSCE scores. Conclusions. Trained residents to function as SPs for evaluating students' interpersonal skills is feasible. The results of an OSCE can be used to evaluate students and to promote clinical educations.