Optimizing the utility of communication OSCEs: omit station-specific checklists and provide students with narrative feedback.
OBJECTIVE
To evaluate how the utility (reliability, validity, acceptability, feasibility, cost and educational impact) of a communication-OSCE was influenced by whether or not station-specific (StSp) checklists were used together with a generic instrument and whether or not narrative feedback was provided to students.


METHODS
At ten stations, faculty members rated standardized patient-student interactions using the common ground (CG) instrument (at all stations) and StSp-checklists. Both raters and patients provided written feedback. The impact of changing the design on the various utility parameters was assessed: reliability by means of a generalizability study, cost using the Reznick model and the other utility parameters by means of a survey.


RESULTS
Use of the generic instrument (CG) proved more reliable (G coefficient=0.67) than using the StSp-checklists (G=0.47) or both (G=0.65) while there was a high correlation between both scale scores (Pearsons'r=0.86). The cost was 6.5% higher when StSp-checklists were used and 5% higher when narrative feedback was provided.


CONCLUSIONS
The utility of a communication OSCE can be enhanced by omitting StSp-checklists and by providing narrative feedback to students.


CONCLUSIONS
The same generic assessment scale can be used in all stations of a communication OSCE. Providing feedback to students is promising but it increases the costs.
Department of General Practice, Catholic University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. marc.vannuland@med.kuleuven.be
Marc
M
Van Nuland
Wim
W
Van den Noortgate
Cees
C
van der Vleuten
Goedhuys
G
Jo
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001530:Belgium; D057189:Checklist; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000592:standards; D003142:Communication; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D003479:Curriculum; D004504:Education, Medical, Undergraduate; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D005178:Faculty; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005246:Feedback; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D033262:Narration; D015588:Observer Variation; D016544:Patient Simulation; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D014956:Writing