A comprehensive checklist for reporting the use of OSCEs

Abstract

Background: The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) has experienced an explosion of use which has rarely been accompanied by systematic investigations on its validity, reliability and feasibility. A systematic review of OSCE was undertaken as part of Best Evidence Medical Education at the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon. Several problems were identified with published papers relating to completeness of information presented, methodological issues or the use of terminology.

Aim: To identify a need for standardization within the reporting of OSCE studies in medical education based in the first 104 papers of the aforementioned review.

Method: Two independent reviewers coded each paper.

Results: The most important problem identified was the lack of information, followed by the degree of inconsistency when reporting on OSCEs (papers with missing data and papers where data was given in a way that interpretation is difficult or impossible in terms of evidence; heterogeneity in reporting, lack of a standardized vocabulary, statistical errors and lack of structure within reporting).

Conclusions: The authors present a ‘Comprehensive Checklist for those describing the use of OSCEs in the report of educational literature’ as an attempt to encourage better report standards.

Notes

Notes

1.  A separate list of the 104 references is presented in Appendix 1.

2.  http://www.bemecollaboration.org/beme/files/starting%20reviews/Appendix%20IIIA%20BEME%20Coding%20Sheet.pdf

3.  A separate list of the 18 studies–not included on the BEME Systematic Review but mentioned in Sections ‘Methods’ and ‘Results’ of this article to illustrate the ‘lack of standardized vocabulary’ and ‘statistical issues’–is presented in Appendix 2.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Madalena Patrício

MADALENA FOLQUE PATRÍCIO is president of the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE), project director at the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine and assistant professor at the Institute for Introduction to Medicine, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon.

Miguel Julião

MIGUEL JULIÃO is a resident in Family Medicine and Scientific Consultant at Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon.

Filipa Fareleira

FILIPA FARELEIRA is a resident in Family Medicine and Scientific Consultant at Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon.

Meredith Young

MEREDITH YOUNG is a PhD Candidate in the Departments of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University.

Geoffrey Norman

GEOFFREY NORMAN is a professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University.

António Vaz Carneiro

ANTÓNIO VAZ CARNEIRO is a professor of Medicine and Head of Centre for Evidence Based Medicine, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Lisbon.