Abstract:
An Objective Standardized Clinical Examination (OSCE) was initially described and used in evaluating medical student’s abilities to take a history, perform a physical examination, and provide patient management. There are three main components to the OSCE: 1) The format of the exam is highly structured, 2) The scoring systems are objective. 3) The exam utilizes standardized patients to interact with the students taking the exam. This study examines a musculoskeletal OSCE in 1st year doctoral physical therapy students. The purpose of this study is to determine the reliability of this evaluation tool. 12 physical therapy students volunteered for this study. There were a total of 6 examiners. Four of the examiners were on-site examiners and were in the same room with the examinees on the day of the exam. Each on-site examiner scored 3 students. Two of the examiners were video examiners and scored all 12 students. Thus, each student received 3 different scores on their performance. Pearson correlation coefficient, ICCs and Cronbach’s were applied to analyze the strength of relationship between examiners for OSCE scores. The data indicates there were moderate to strong relationships for station and total scores between examiners. Knowledge regarding the reliability of OSCEs in physical therapy education is lacking. The results from this preliminary study provide promising data of a reliable and objective tool that can be used in physical therapy education programs to evaluate student’s clinical performance on practical exams.
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