The implementation of a computer based system for the management of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) assessment in undergraduate nursing education

Background: Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is an established tool in the repertoire of clinical assessment methods in nurse education. The use of OSCEs facilitate the assessment of psychomotor skills as well... [ view full abstract ]

Background: Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is an established tool in the repertoire of clinical assessment methods in nurse education. The use of OSCEs facilitate the assessment of psychomotor skills as well as knowledge and attitudes. Identified benefits of OSCE assessment include: development of student’s confidence in their clinical skills and preparation for clinical practice. However, a number of challenges are identified with the traditional paper method including documentation errors and poor student feedback.

Objectives: To examine electronic OSCE assessment methods and evaluate the benefits of using it compared to a paper based method. Explore assessors’ perceptions and attitudes to the computer based package as opposed to the paper based method.

Design: A study was conducted using electronic software in the management of a four station OSCE assessment delivered over two consecutive years with a cohort of first year undergraduate nursing students (n=203) in an Irish higher education institution. A quantitative descriptive survey methodology was used to obtain the views of the assessors on the process and outcome of using the electronic software.
Methods: All OSCE documentation was converted to online format. Assessors were trained in software package usage and laptops were procured to facilitate electronic management of OSCE assessment. Following OSCE assessment assessors were invited to evaluate the experience.

Results Electronic software facilitated the storage and analysis of overall group and individual results thereby offering considerable time savings. Submission of electronic forms was allowed only when fully completed thus removing the potential for missing data. Feedback allowed the student to benchmark their performance against the class.

Conclusions Analysis of results can highlight issues around inter-rater reliability and validity of measurement tools. Regression analysis increases fairness of result calculations. Assessors’ satisfaction with the software was high.