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Learning
Innovations Golden Apple Grant Recipients
Final Reports April 2002
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| TITLE: |
Competency
Based Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) |
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GRANT RECIPIENTS: |
Susan
Kass, Dental Hygiene, Medical Campus
skass@mdc.edu
Raquel Hardie,
Dental Hygiene, Medical Campus
rhardie@mdc.edu
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| ABSTRACT: |
Faculty will identify
a series of clinical skills that students should master by
the completion of their first year of study. They will then
administer the OSCE, an objective exam that serves as a method
for assessing a multitude of clinical, critical thinking,
and decision-making skills. The OSCE format utilizes multiple
stations designed to be interactive and to test mastery of
skills. This provides all students with the same experience
and with the opportunity to receive feedback on specific
skills related to client care. |
| PROJECT
SUMMARY: |
A type
of assessment tool includes, “authentic assessment” where
the tasks that students perform simulate clinical situations.
This type of evaluation stages real world encounters
and provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate
their knowledge, skills and strategies for implementing
critical thinking and decision-making skills. An Objective
Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) and Station Exams
with Standardized Patients (SP) is one such assessment
tool. This was the innovative project that the Dental
Hygiene Program implemented this past fall semester.
The OSCE was implemented on September 26, 2002, to our second
year students as they transitioned into the fourth semester of
the program. Our goal was to identify specific student and clinical
strengths and weaknesses. The objective was that the results
from this examination would provide the faculty with guidelines
in order to remediate the students in their identified areas
of weakness. As a result, remediation warranted by students could
be identified early and change could be implemented in a timely
manner. As a program, the faculty wanted to evaluate the students
and their instruction in the following areas: 1) assessment of
medical history taking, 2) probing, (3) blood pressure, 4) gingival
description, 5) self care instructions, and 6) instrument design
and adaptation.
The feedback from the OSCE was used by the faculty to work with
each student individually to further evaluate the student’s
competency and also to provide additional instruction if needed.
Altogether, the OSCE as an “authentic assessment” tool,
provided for the unique opportunity to evaluate the student in
a controlled clinical setting and observe their performance in
areas such as critical-thinking, decision-making as well as psychomotor
skills, in a real clinical setting. The exam provided great enlightenment
for our students as well as the faculty.
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| PROJECT
RESULTS: |
Standardized patients
(SP) were used for the stations involving medical history
review, probing and gingival description. The results of
the OSCE highlighted student strengths in the areas of
self-care instructions, probing and blood pressure assessment,
but significant deficiencies in the review of medical histories,
gingival description, and instrument design.
These outcomes gave the faculty and students the opportunity
to identify which skills were demonstrated with competency and
which skills needed to be remediated with further discussion
and instruction.
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| PLANS
FOR DISSEMINATION: |
Also, as a department,
we have already implemented changes to our curriculum that
puts further emphasis in teaching those areas that were found
to be deficient, such as the review of medical histories.
A description of the grant project was provided at the Medical
Center Campus Spring Convocation on January 6, 2003. Details were
shared and the faculty was invited to seek further clarification
if they wanted to implement the OSCE in their program. |
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