Assessment of Clinical Competence in Therapeutics: The Use of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination

Abstract

In recent years there has been an increase in the number of drugs used by doctors and also in drug-related disease. Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics has become an increasingly important subject in the undergraduate curriculum, but this has not been reflected in assessment procedures.

In an attempt to devise an assessment of students' practical rather than their theoretical competence in therapeutics we have applied the principles of the objective structured clinical examination. Using this technique in the final professional examination it has proved possible to examine, in one morning, 103 students on a range of competencies and topics related to patient management and drug therapy.