OBJECTIVE STRUCTURED CLINICAL EXAMINATION (OSCE) IN PHYSIOTHERAPY EDUCATION

Abstract

Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a widely adopted method to evaluate clinical competence in physiotherapy and health-profession programmes. It was developed to overcome the shortcomings of traditional clinical examination, particularly the narrow sample of cases examined, judgement and subjectivity of the examiner (Newble, 2004). In physiotherapy, the use of OSCEs can evaluate cognitive, psychomotor and affective skills, and the evidence base is less than in medicine and nursing (Ribeiro et al., 2019). Research indicates good inter-rater reliability with poorer internal consistency when the stations reflect a wide range of clinical specialties (Bobos et al., 2021; Swift et al., 2013). In addition, evidence of validity suggests that OSCEs should not serve as the sole measure of readiness for independent practice (Pelland et al., 2022). This chapter provides an overview of OSCE use, OSCE design, psychometric evidence, student experience, standard setting, and digital developments such as teleOSCEs, virtual OSCEs and virtual-reality stations. It also proposes implications for physiotherapy educators who are looking for fair, feasible and educationally meaningful assessment systems more generally.