1. Optimizing the utility of communication OSCEs: omit station-specific checklists and provide students with narrative feedback.
- Author
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Van Nuland M, Van den Noortgate W, van der Vleuten C, and Jo G
- Subjects
- Adult, Aged, Belgium, Costs and Cost Analysis, Curriculum, Education, Medical, Undergraduate, Educational Measurement economics, Educational Measurement standards, Faculty, Feasibility Studies, Female, Humans, Male, Narration, Observer Variation, Patient Simulation, Physician-Patient Relations, Reproducibility of Results, Writing, Checklist, Clinical Competence standards, Communication, Educational Measurement methods, Feedback, Students, Medical psychology
- Abstract
Objective: To evaluate how the utility (reliability, validity, acceptability, feasibility, cost and educational impact) of a communication-OSCE was influenced by whether or not station-specific (StSp) checklists were used together with a generic instrument and whether or not narrative feedback was provided to students., Methods: At ten stations, faculty members rated standardized patient-student interactions using the common ground (CG) instrument (at all stations) and StSp-checklists. Both raters and patients provided written feedback. The impact of changing the design on the various utility parameters was assessed: reliability by means of a generalizability study, cost using the Reznick model and the other utility parameters by means of a survey., Results: Use of the generic instrument (CG) proved more reliable (G coefficient=0.67) than using the StSp-checklists (G=0.47) or both (G=0.65) while there was a high correlation between both scale scores (Pearsons'r=0.86). The cost was 6.5% higher when StSp-checklists were used and 5% higher when narrative feedback was provided., Conclusion: The utility of a communication OSCE can be enhanced by omitting StSp-checklists and by providing narrative feedback to students., Practice Implications: The same generic assessment scale can be used in all stations of a communication OSCE. Providing feedback to students is promising but it increases the costs., (Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2012
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