The effects of the objective structured clinical examination on the reduction of anxiety

Background: This study investigated whether the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) performed before training can reduce students’ anxiety over the occupational therapy clinical training program. Methods:... [ view full abstract ]

Background: This study investigated whether the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) performed before training can reduce students’ anxiety over the occupational therapy clinical training program.
Methods: Subjects were 35 students who have not yet undergone training. This study was conducted with the approval of the ethics committee of Teikyo Heisei University (Approval No. 25-087). Self-administered questionnaires were completed before and after the OSCE. A 5-point scale was used to rate the levels of confidence in the evaluation of each test item and performance of the training. Free comments were encouraged to describe their anxiety. Statistical analysis was conducted by calculating the numbers for each answer choice, and the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was also performed with a significance level set at p<0.05.
Results: Students’ anxiety over the training and the evaluation of test items, such as hemiplegia, kinesthesia, and hyper-cerebral functions, were reduced, but that over the implementation of motion analysis remained persistent.
Conclusions: Since the items which showed the reduction of anxiety have clear methods to evaluate them, undergoing the OSCE as a practice method for clinical training has contributed to reducing their anxiety. However, since there are no clear methods for motion analysis, students’ anxiety regarding this item did not decrease. Also, the testing environment is considered to promote their anxiety, suggesting that positive feedback can reduce it.
Application to practice: Examination of the OSCE contents and environment as well as feedback methods may prevent students from becoming anxious about the training.