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Evaluating Psychiatric Clinical Clerks With a Mini-Objective Structured Clinical Examination

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Abstract

Although objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) are well-accepted performance-based assessments with good reliability, psychiatric educators have been slow to adopt this evaluation method, opting for oral exams that often have inferior psychometric properties. A 4-station “mini-OSCE” was developed and used to test 42 clinical clerks in psychiatry. The examination mean score and standard deviation were 74% and 8.08, respectively, while individual scores ranged from 56% to 86%. Interstation reliability was 0.61. Student and faculty satisfaction was high. A “mini-OSCE” for psychiatric clinical clerks confers the benefits of acceptable reliability and a high degree of acceptance without incurring the high costs usually associated with OSCE evaluation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Brian Hodges M.D., M.Ed., F.R.C.P.C. (assistant professor and director of undergraduate education) &  Jodi Lofchy M.D., F.R.C.P.C. (assistant professor and undergraduate education coordinator)

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  1. Brian Hodges M.D., M.Ed., F.R.C.P.C.
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  2. Jodi Lofchy M.D., F.R.C.P.C.
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Hodges, B., Lofchy, J. Evaluating Psychiatric Clinical Clerks With a Mini-Objective Structured Clinical Examination. Acad Psychiatry 21, 219–225 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03341435

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03341435

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