Assessment through Objective Structured Clinical Examination: How to Promote the Satisfaction of Physiotherapy Students

This study aimed to assess the satisfaction of physiotherapy students with the general structure of objective structured clinical examination (OSCE).

A researcher-made questionnaire consisting of eight items was distributed to 43 graduate and undergraduate physiotherapy students to evaluate the general structure of OSCE. Data analysis was done through SPSS software v. 20, considering a significance level of P<0.05.

Among 43 participants with a mean age of 23.7±2.4 years old, the percentage of desirable attitude toward attractiveness of the OSCE was 46.6%, being fair was 21%, identifying strengths and weaknesses was 53.5%, the ability to assess knowledge and information was 11.7%, good assessment of practical skills was 30.3%, good assessment of clinical diagnosis skills was 34.9%, and appropriateness was 34.9%. In total, 88.4% of the participants believed that OSCE increases students’ stress. The total satisfaction of all the participants with the OSCE was 2.7±0.8, with last year’s students significantly less than graduate ones (2.6±0.9 vs 2.9±0.3).

The findings showed that the satisfaction of physiotherapy students regarding the general structure of the OSCE was not desirable, and OSCE was considered stressful. Therefore, due to the importance of OSCE in assessing clinical skills, it is better to improve the quality of holding the OSCE by fixing existent shortcomings, including shortness of time at each OSCE station and establishing training sessions.