title: [The Objective Structured Clinical Examination and its potential applications as an assessment and feedback tool for IDF primary care physicians--a pilot study].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In recent years, the Israel Defense Forces IDF developed special training programs for junior military physicians at the beginning of their service and CME courses for senior military physicians. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a well established assessment tool in medical education that can be of vast use in military training programs for primary care physicians.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the OSCE as an assessment tool of military primary care physicians.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty-one military primary care physicians completed a 10-station OSCE. The clinical scenario choices were based on the most prevalent problems in the annual statistics of the Israeli Medical Corps between the years 1988-1998. Each station consisted of two parts: a doctor-SP (standardized patient) encounter and a written exercise. Both parts were evaluated by checklists designed and validated by a committee of OSCE experts and senior military physicians.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall reliability of the exam was alpha = .88. The examinees highly valued the relevance of the scenarios to their every day practice (4.38 out of 5.0) and the reliability of the standardized patients (4.0 out of 5.0). A total of 92% request feedback on their performance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This pilot study found the OSCE to be a feasible, valid and reliable tool that can serve to assess the capability of physicians to deal with major issues in military primary health care. The OSCE can also play a major role in structured feedback provided to these physicians.
authors.affiliation: Medical Corps, IDF.
authors.forename: Orit Cohen
authors.initials: OC
authors.lastname: Castel
authors.forename: Arik
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shechter
authors.forename: Gilad E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Amiel
authors.forename: Dalia
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gilad
authors.forename: Shmuel
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reis
mesh_terms: D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D005246:Feedback; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D008887:Military Medicine; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000592:standards*; D010821:Physicians, Family / Q000193:education