To the point: reviews in medical education—the Objective Structured Clinical Examination
Received 3 June 2008; received in revised form 19 September 2008; accepted 30 September 2008.
This article, the eighth in the To the Point Series prepared by the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics Undergraduate Medical Education Committee, discusses the effectiveness of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) for assessment of learners' knowledge, skills, and behaviors. The OSCE has also been used for the appraisal of residents and physicians undergoing licensure examinations; herein we focus on its application to undergraduate medical education. We review evidence for best practices and recommendations on effective use of the OSCE and requirements for and challenges to its implementation, including creative ways to design an OSCE program with a limited budget. We discuss its role in providing formative and summative feedback and describe learner performance on the OSCE as the OSCE relates to subsequent testing, including US Medical Licensing Examination step 1. A representative case with assessment used at the authors' medical schools is included.
aDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN
bDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL
cDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM
dDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, Doha, Qatar
eDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD
fDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Women's Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, NY
gDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville, TN
hDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Greenville, SC
iDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA
Reprints: Petra M. Casey, MD, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First St SW, Rochester, MN 55905
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the US Department of Defense, the US Department of Health and Human Services, or the US government.
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