Psychometric characteristics of the objective structured clinical examination.

摘要: The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) is increasingly being used as a method of assessment yet its measurement characteristics have not been well documented. Evidence accumulating that many OSCEs may be too short to achieve reliable results. This paper reports detailed psychometric analyses which were administered part well-established final-year examination. Generalizability theory guided investigation test reliability. At the present length OSCE components showed low reliabilities relative written components. Satisfactory could potentially achieved if was increased approximately 6 hours, time would create significant logistic problems for most medical schools. Several strategies dealing with this practical problem explored. Firstly, it shown more careful selection stations based on their can significantly improve Secondly, where rater availability limiting factor increasing length, gained by using one per station and having than two raters station. Finally, scores can, advantage, combined other are obtained less resource-intensive methods. By adopting such strategies, competence in about 4 hours testing equally divided between an constructed test.