Five years after commencing the objective structured clinical examination: are we getting it right? Medical students’ assessment as the measuring index

Introduction: The aim of this study was to assess our use of OSCE from the perception of final year medical students.
Materials and methods: This is a cross sectional survey of final year medical students undergoing the final examination in Surgery. All 102 medical students in the class were given the self-administered questionnaire to fill. The data were collated into excel spreadsheets and analysed using the SPSS version 21.
Results: A total of 79 completed questionnaires were retrieved (return rate of 78%). All the students knew about and had participated previously in OSCE, 94.9% accorded the OSCE fair. 76(93.2%) wanted the examination as the main method of clinical assessment, 38(46.6%) had adequate preparation.
In terms of the OSCE stations not mirroring real clinical scenarios, 38(48.1%) disagreed, and 26(20.5%) strongly disagreed. 34(43%) disagreeing that the logistics was poor. The students rating of the OSCE, on a scale of 1 - 10, gave a mean score of >8 for spread of the OSCE stations, detail of the questions and objectivity of the examination. The nearness to clinical reality was rated as 7.52 with artificiality of the stations rated as 4.12.
Conclusion: The OSCE has gained acceptance amongst final year medical students.