Tentang Kami

Since its introduction as a mode of students’ assessment in medical school in 1975, by Haden and Gleeson,1 the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) has become a standard method of assessment in both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Originally described as ‘a timed examination in which medical students interact with a series of simulated patients in stations that may involve history-taking, physical examination, counselling or patient management,1 the OSCE examination has been broadened in its scope and has undergone a lot of modification to suit peculiar circumstances.2^-4 In the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and indeed most reputable colleges of medicine the OSCE is the standard mode of assessment of competency, clinical skills, and counselling sessions satisfactorily complementing cognitive knowledge testing in essay writing and objective examination.

The OSCE is a versatile multipurpose evaluative tool that can be utilized to evaluate health care professionals in a clinical setting. It assesses competency, based on objective testing through direct observation. It is comprised of several "stations" in which examinees are expected to perform a variety of clinical tasks within a specified time period against criteria formulated to the clinical skill, thus demonstrating competency of skills and/or attitudes. The OSCE has been used to evaluate those areas most critical to performance of health care professionals, such as the ability to obtain/interpret data, problem-solve, teach, communicate, and handle unpredictable patient behavior, which are otherwise impossible in the traditional clinical examination. Any attempt to evaluate these critical areas in the old-fashioned clinical case examination will seem to be assessing theory rather than simulating practical performance.