Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE): Lecturers’ knowledge and medical students’ attitude from a young medical college in Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: Objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) is increasingly being adopted as an assessment tool in Nigerian medical schools. This study assessed lecturers’ knowledge and medical students’ attitudes about OSCE.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among final year medical students of 2024 set. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection and comprised questions on attributes, orientation of and quality of OSCE performance. The self-administered questionnaire for lecturers had two main parts; socio-demographic characteristics and a section to assess knowledge of OSCE. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 23.

Results: Four (66.6%) out of 6 lecturers in the paediatrics department participated in the study with a median age of 50.0 (IQR -10.5) years. Two (50.0%) had good knowledge of OSCE, 1 (25%) had average knowledge and 1 (25%) had poor knowledge. A total of 54 out of the total 58 medical students in that set were recruited, giving a response rate of 93.1%. Fifty-three (98.1%) of the respondents agreed that the stations felt like real-life scenarios and provided opportunity to learn. However, about one – half 28 (51.9%) of them felt they needed more time at the stations and 29 (53.7%) felt that OSCE was stressful. All 54 (100.0%) of them perceived OSCE as a more reliable and standardized examination compared with long case examination.

Conclusions: This study found that OSCE was positively perceived by majority of the student respondents. Some challenges identified were inadequate time at some stations and a perception of it being stressful. Although one-half of the lecturers had good knowledge of OSCE, only 25% had had formal training on OSCE, and all of them recommended that more training may help improve the quality of OSCE in the department.