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Introduction The development of methods to assess learning and understanding in professional practice is a challenge. The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) has been widely used in the teaching and assessment of clinical medicine. This teaching method employs a circuit of workstations at which the clinical performance of a candidate is tested sequentially.
Method Year III MPharm students undertook an eight-station mixed topic pharmacy practice practical exercise, lasting 56 minutes in February, 2000. This was one of a series of dispensing practice classes, which also included dispensary-based practical exercises and self-study problems. Students recorded their responses to the workstation scenarios on an answer sheet organised to reflect the workflow direction.
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Results A 100 per cent response rate was obtained to both staff and student questionnaires. Most students (98 per cent) felt that the exercise provided an effective revision tool for the pharmacy practice practical course, with 77 per cent indicating that their understanding had been improved.
The flow-chart answer sheet was considered by 84 per cent of students to aid exercise completion. Many students (71 per cent) thought that the exercise was enjoyable; however, they felt pressured by the exercise, with 69 per cent suggesting that too little time was allocated.
All staff felt that the exercise was more easily managed than conventional sessions and all indicated that the exercise would provide a useful, realistic tool for examination assessment. A directed flow-chart answer sheet was favoured by 79 per cent of staff, indicating that an organised approach to practical exercises was facilitated.
Although 79 per cent of staff felt that the time allocated was sufficient, they considered the objective structured exercise to be more intense than conventional practical sessions.
Discussion Medical students have been shown to display a positive attitude to OSCE, indicating that the method is interesting, effective, useful and challenging but they also indicated that it was taxing both mentally and physically.1
Pharmacy students also appear to find an objective structured exercise a useful, effective learning tool but also gave indications that the method exerted mental and physical pressure upon the candidate.
Staff also favoured the objective structured method since the operation of exercises was considered to closely emulate reality and concepts appeared to be assimilated quickly. However, the intensity of sessions was also criticised.
We conclude that although the objective structured practical exercise provides a useful tool in the teaching and learning of pharmacy practice, further evaluation is necessary to determine the extent to which the results of such exercises are influenced by stress induced by the method. A comparative evaluation of the various methods for assessment of professional competence at undergraduate level is continuing.
Pharmacy practice group, school of pharmacy, Aston university, Birmingham B4 7ET
| 1. Malik SL, Manchanda SK, Deepak KK et al. The attitudes of medical students to the objective structured practical examination. Medical Education 1988; 22:40-6. |