Standardizing the assessment of the clinical abilities of physical therapists and occupational therapists using OSCE

Abstract

[Purpose] The objective of this study was to clarify the relationship between the results of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and academic and clinical training achievements, which may be significant in terms of the establishment of standards for the evaluation of therapists' clinical performance. [Subjects] The study surveyed 46 physical and 43 occupational therapists who enrolled at our university in April 2007 and graduated from it in March 2011. [Methods] The OSCE results and academic and clinical training achievements were scored to examine the relationship between them by calculating Spearman's rank correlation coefficients. [Results] A significant correlation was observed between academic achievements and between clinical training achievements, while the correlation between the OSCE results was shown to be high or low. The correlation between the OSCE results and academic achievements was significant until the third grade (OSCE Level 2) and non-significant in the fourth grade (OSCE Level 3) requiring application. The correlation between the OSCE results and clinical training achievements showed a tendency to be low. [Conclusion] These results suggest the necessity of reconsidering the adoption of an OSCE system focusing on consistency between the contents of clinical training and academic education.