OBJECTIVE STRUCTURED CLINICAL EXAMINATION (OSCE) AS A RELIABLE EVALUATION STRATEGY: EVIDENCE FROM A BRAZILIAN MEDICAL SCHOOL

Abstract

The new curriculum of medical schools has brought the need to develop a professional committed to ethics, capable of understanding the role of social factors, the insertion of the individual into the family and their role in promoting health. These skills and the use of new methodologies in teaching-learning process have demonstrated that the traditional performance assessment methods are limited in holistically evaluating the student. This study analyzed the correlation among different methods for evaluating competencies in medical internship students and Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). A cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical study was performed among 5th year medical students at Pediatric, Surgery, Medical Clinic, Family and Community Medicine and Gynecology and Obstetrics. Grades of each student obtained through different evaluations (theoretical test, conceptual evaluation and test skills) at the end of each rotation were correlated with the individual results from OSCE. In regard to correlations with the OSCE score values, it was found a weak to moderate positive and statistically significant relationship with the global cognitive score (r =.22, p <.001), global abilities score (r =.26, p < .001) and with the global behavioral score (r = .38, p < .001). The students' performance in the various assessments of performance evaluated here was positively correlated to their performance on OSCE. Furthermore, the organization of an OSCE-type assessment prepared in multiple, committed and competent hands may serve as a unique assessment and, in fact, assess the development of clinical skills for future doctors.