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An Objective Structured Clinical Examination to assess preclinical skills
Author(s) -
HAWKER Jillian,
WALKER Karen
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
nutrition and dietetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.479
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1747-0080
pISSN - 1446-6368
DOI - 10.1111/j.1747-0080.2010.01427.x
Subject(s) - objective structured clinical examination , formative assessment , medicine , summative assessment , physical examination , medical education , medical physics , psychology , surgery , pedagogy
Aim: To describe the use of a preclinical Objective Structured Clinical Examination for the assessment of clinical skills in undergraduate dietetic students. Methods: The Objective Structured Clinical Examination is a well‐established assessment tool in medicine, nursing and some allied health disciplines, but has been rarely used in either formative or summative assessment of dietetic students. This paper describes the development, implementation and evaluation of a preclinical Objective Structured Clinical Examination for dietetic students. Results: Students' performance in a preclinical Objective Structured Clinical Examination was assessed over a six‐year period in successive student cohorts. Performance in the Objective Structured Clinical Examination was significantly related to their performance at their first clinical placement. Conclusions: A preclinical dietetic Objective Structured Clinical Examination allows problems arising during the teaching of basic clinical skills to be noted and corrected. In addition, a preclinical Objective Structured Clinical Examination identifies students requiring additional support on placement.