title: Student assessment by objective structured examination in a neurology clerkship.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We evaluated the reliability and predictive ability of an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) in the assessment of medical students at the completion of a neurology clerkship.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed data from 195 third-year medical students who took the OSCE. For each student, the OSCE consisted of 2 standardized patient encounters. The scores obtained from each encounter were compared. Faculty clinical evaluations of each student for 2 clinical inpatient rotations were also compared. Hierarchical regression analysis was applied to test the ability of the averaged OSCE scores to predict standardized written examination scores and composite clinical scores.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Students' OSCE scores from the 2 standardized patient encounters were significantly correlated with each other (r = 0.347, p < 0.001), and the scores for all students were normally distributed. In contrast, students' faculty clinical evaluation scores from 2 different clinical inpatient rotations were uncorrelated, and scores were skewed toward the highest ratings. After accounting for clerkship order, better OSCE scores were predictive of better National Board of Medical Examiners standardized examination scores (R(2)Δ = 0.131, p < 0.001) and of better faculty clinical scores (R(2)Δ = 0.078, p < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Student assessment by an OSCE provides a reliable and predictive objective assessment of clinical performance in a neurology clerkship.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Chicago, IL, USA. rlukas@neurology.bsd.uchicago.edu
authors.forename: Rimas V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Lukas
authors.forename: Taiwo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Adesoye
authors.forename: Sandy
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Blood
authors.forename: James R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Brorson
mesh_terms: D002982:Clinical Clerkship; D002983:Clinical Competence; D004521:Educational Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009462:Neurology / Q000193:education*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013337:Students, Medical