title: Use of a modified OSCE to assess nurse practitioner students.
abstract: Assessment of clinical competence in nurse practitioner programmes has been greatly advanced over the last 10 years by widespread use of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). This article describes a modified OSCE developed in a nurse education department at a specific university within the UK to standardize evaluation of the physical examination skills of nurse practitioner students. Stations comprise procedure stations, which require students to perform a 'whole' examination of the subject, and question stations, which are composed of two forms of viva, involving various cognitive activities. A number of other universities are currently using this modified OSCE as a tool for formative and summative assessment, as a learning resource, and to identify gaps and weaknesses in clinical skills.
authors.affiliation: School of Health and Social Care, Bournemouth University, Dorset.
authors.forename: Ahmed D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Khattab
authors.forename: Barry
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rawlings
mesh_terms: D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards*; D004511:Education, Nursing, Graduate / Q000592:standards; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D017145:Models, Educational; D016294:Models, Nursing; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D009723:Nurse-Patient Relations; D009730:Nursing Assessment / Q000592:standards; D015403:Nursing Evaluation Research; D010808:Physical Examination / Q000451:nursing / Q000523:psychology / Q000592:standards*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D006113:United Kingdom