Introduction of an Objective Structured Clinical Examination for Pharmacy Students in Serbia

Abstract

Introduction: At the Faculty of Pharmacy University of Belgrade, the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (0SCE) was introduced to assess clinical competences and communication skills of pharmacy students following their 6-weeks practice in public pharmacies during the 10th semester. Methods: The OSCE consisted of one patient case that was presented to the student firstly in a short written form. The patient case had at least one drug-related problem that the student was expected to identify and solve. A teaching assistant played the role of the patient and a teacher assessed the communication skills and clinical competences during the student's interview with the „patient" using a structured form (checklist). The student had limited time (7 minutes) to identify and solve the drug-related problem(s) and to councel the patient. The use of a Drug register and Pharmacotherapy guide were allowed. Results: One hundred fifty students completed the OSCE so far. The students could achieve O-40 points during the exam, according to their performance. The maximal point score was achieved if the student obtained all relevant information from the patient”, identified and solved the drug-related problem(s) and offered appropriate information. The minimal point score (0) was assigned if the student made an error which could harm the patient. The median result of the OSCE was 28 points (interquatile range 10), while 7 students (4.7%) scored 0-9 points, 12 (8.0%) scored 10-19 points, 68 (45.3%) scored 20-29 points, 58 (38.79%) scored 30-39 points and 5 students (3.3%) scored 40 points. Conclusions: The introduction of the OSCE was successful and enabled the teaching staff to obtain a more accurate knowledge of the students’ clinical competences and communication skills as well as to identify gaps in the competences in skills which need to be improved.