Students' perceptions and attitudes towards Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in the College of Medicine, KSAU-HS, King Fahad Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) requires that examinees rotate through a series of seven OSCE stations and perform a variety of clinical tasks during a seven minutes period for all blocks. Aim: This study was conducted to explore the perceptions of the students regarding OSCE Faculty of Medicine, King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences (KSAU-HS) King Fahad Medical City. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, a validated and pretested questionnaire was distributed to all 78 medical students. Questions included students' perceptions and attitudes concerning pre-exam orientation regarding OSCE, exam content, the incorporation of knowledge, skills, stress encountered, duration suitability and validity of OSCE stations Results: The majority of all 78 students were males, enrolled in hematology block and living with their parents. More than 94% rated the OSCE as stressful but 56% rated it as less stressful than other forms of examinations. In general the majority of the students rated favorably the OSCE as they agree that OSCE is fair, well administered, structured and sequenced, allowing students to compensate in some areas and minimized failing, that they were fully aware of the nature of the exam, that the tasks reflected those taught and they were fair and that requirements for each station were provided and that instructions and OSCE scores are standardized. Females were significantly more agreeing than males with the structure, conduction of the exam which minimized their chance of failing and provided opportunities for learning and is a true measure of the essential clinical skills Conclusion: Students view OSCE as a fair and standardized way to assess clinical competencies and females were more satisfied than males.