Application of OSCE for Stage Assessment in Standardized Training for Oral Residents

The use of objective structured clinical examination in dental education- a narrative review

The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a performance-based assessment intended to assess medical students' clinical competency in a simulated, standardized environment. Because it measures the student's ability to use clinical knowledge, diagnostic skill, and decision-making, the OSCE is thought to be more objective than traditional tests. OSCE exams have been increasingly employed in dentistry schools, particularly in the last decade, and it is crucial to investigate instructors' and dental students' experiences with this evaluation approach.

Scoring consistency of standard patients and examiners in the developed dental objective structured clinical examination system

OBJECTIVE

To investigate the role of standard patients (SPs) and examiners as assessors for scoring in the dental objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) system and to evaluate the scoring differences between them.

METHODS

We developed the doctor-patient communication and clinical examination station in the OSCE system. The examination time of this station was 10 min, and the examination institution wrote the script and recruited SPs. A total of 146 examinees who received standardized resident training at the Nanjing Stomatological Hospital, Medical School of Nanjing University between 2018 and 2021 were assessed. They were scored by SPs and examiners according to the same scoring rubrics. Subsequently, the SPSS software was used to analyze the examination results of different assessors and evaluate the consistency.

RESULTS

The average score of all examinees provided by SPs and examiners was 90.45 ± 3.52 and 91.53 ± 4.13, respectively. The consistency analysis showed that the intraclass correlation coefficient was 0.718, which was indicative of medium consistency.

CONCLUSION

Our findings showed that SPs could be used directly as assessors, as they could provide a simulated and realistic clinical setting and create favorable conditions for comprehensive competence training and improvement for medical students.

The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) in Periodontology with Simulated Patient: The Most Realistic Approach to Clinical Practice in Dentistry

The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) is becoming an increasingly established assessment test in dental schools. The use of simulated patients in the OSCE makes the stations more similar to clinical practice. Therefore, the student can show their technical and clinical knowledge, and certainly, their ability to manage the patient. These sorts of tests, in which simulated patients can be included, would be used before the student started clinical practice with patients and/or at the end of the degree. The objective of this work was to describe how the periodontology station was developed using a simulated patient for students of a fifth year dentistry degree taking an OSCE test. Furthermore, a questionnaire was created to learn the perception of the students about this station and its characteristics. The fifth year students at the European University of Madrid positively evaluated this station in their examination. In addition, it was recorded that they preferred a simulated patient in their tests, rather than stations with clinical cases, images, X-rays, and presentations. It is essential that once the OSCE has been completed, the student receives a feedback to learn where they have failed and, therefore, be able to improve any of the aspects evaluated in the station.

Assessment of life support skills of resident dentists using OSCE: cross-sectional survey

BACKGROUND

The aim of this cross-sectional survey was to apply the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) to evaluate the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and endotracheal intubation skills of resident dentists for stage assessment in standardized training.

METHODS

A total of 146 third-year resident dentists were recruited and randomly assigned to perform either CPR or endotracheal intubation. Their performance was scored by experienced anesthesiologists with standardized scoring criteria. Participants were also asked to rated their self-assessed competence, willingness, and perceptions on training status using Likert-type scales in a questionnaire. Student's ttest was applied to compare scores for CPR and endotracheal intubation performed by resident dentists with different characteristics. The results of the questionnaires were analyzed and visualized by the R package 'Likert'. Significance was set at the P < 0.05 level.

RESULTS

The mean OSCE score for endotracheal intubation (59.1 ± 12.5) was lower than that of CPR (72.4 ± 8.8). Participants with Master's degrees scored higher than those with Bachelor's degrees and Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degrees in the assessment of CPR and endotracheal intubation. Low scores of self-assessed competence and willingness were observed, especially for endotracheal intubation. Resident dentists showed poor satisfaction on training volume and frequency of CPR and endotracheal intubation.

CONCLUSION

Resident dentists showed poor performance on CPR and endotracheal intubation assessed by the OSCE. Relatively low self-assessed competence and willingness were reported in endotracheal intubation. The medical emergency curriculum for resident dentists should be more consistent and standardized to help resident dentists enhance the proficiency of life support skills.

Perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on infection containment training and mental state of dental residents in China: A longitudinal study

Background

COVID-19 has presented a challenge for dental settings and dental schools: how to continue providing dental care and maintain education during the pandemic while remaining healthy. We highlight the necessity of infection containment control training for dental residents and rethink the tasks of safeguarding trainees' health and cultivating their abilities to deal with public health crises in the future. This paper may also serve as a health policy reference for policy makers.

Objective

The study aimed to compare the formats, frequency, contents, emphasis, and test scores of infection containment control training pre- and post-pandemic. Besides, after the COVID-19 outbreak, we assessed the increased anxiety level, communication difficulties, and confidence of dental residents impacted by the pandemic.

Methods

A total of 251 dental residents in Stomatological Hospital of Chongqing Medical University were recruited to complete a questionnaire of their routine involvement in infection control training before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. A self-designed 10-point Likert scale was used to assess the increased anxiety level, communication difficulties, and confidence in facing with the future public health crisis impacted by the pandemic.

Results

After the outbreak, although more trainees chose online assessment than offline assessment, most of them (74.90%) still preferred in-person training rather than online training. Contents that trainees had been focusing on were affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Thereafter, they were more inclined to learn crisis management. Over half of the participants (56.17%) participated in training more frequently after the outbreak. However, postgraduate students participated in training less frequently than others after the outbreak (p < 0.01). First-year trainees accounted for the majority in the population who emphasized considerably on infection control training and whose test scores had increased after the outbreak. In addition, the percentage of women scoring increasingly in post-pandemic assessment was significantly higher than that of men. In this study, the average increased anxiety level caused by COVID-19 was 5.51 ± 2.984, which was positively related to communication difficulties with patients caused by the pandemic. The trainees whose homes were located in Hubei Province showed higher increased anxiety levels (8.29 ± 2.93) impacted by the pandemic than the trainees from other provinces (p < 0.05). However, the former's confidence in coping with future public health crises was not significantly different from that of others (p > 0.05).

Conclusions

Owing to the impact of COVID-19, the contents that the trainees focused on, frequency, emphasis, and test scores of infection containment control training were changed. Some recommendations have been provided for policy makers to attach importance to crisis-based training to cultivate dental residents in the post-pandemic era.

Objective structured clinical examination, OSCEs: an advance in the teaching and learning process in the student’s perception

Abstract Introduction The OSCE is a method of clinical competencies evaluation that has gained international popularity in medical and dental education. Objective The purpose of the present study was to describe the stages of development of the OSCE for the undergraduate course in Dentistry and to report the students' perception about this method of evaluation, regarding the degree of difficulty, time for each stage, importance of each station, number of stations, organization of the exam, as well as the total time for the OSCE. Material and method This research was an observational and cross-sectional study, composed of the carry out of an OSCE and later application of an evaluative questionnaire to the students who were in the fourth semester of the Dentistry course. These students had basic knowledge and an intermediate level of competences, compatible with their stage of education. Result As regards the number of stations, 43(97.7%) of the students responded that this was appropriate, OSCE process as a whole was very well organized (n=25; 56.8%), organized (n=17; 38.6%) or not very organized (n=1; 2.27%) and about the total time of the OSCE process, 29(65.9%) reported that it was appropriate; 10 (2.27%) said that it was short; 4 (9.09%), that it was long. Conclusion The student’s perception was positive especially regarding to organization and the time attributed to each station. Furthermore, the students considered that the topics and questions applied in each station were relevant.