Journal of Qualitative Research in Health Sciences

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Student Research Committee, Zeynab (P.B.U.H) School of Nursing and Midwifery, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

2 Department of Nursing, Zeynab (P.B.U.H) School of Nursing and Midwifery, Guilan University of Medical Sciences, Rasht, Iran

10.34172/jqr.2023.27

Abstract

Background: Clinical evaluation in medical sciences is one of the important components of education. One of these evaluations is the clinical assessment for final-year nursing students when they are going to graduate and start their profession. To this end, this study aimed to explore the experiences of nursing professors and students regarding the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE).
Methods: This qualitative study was conducted using a content analysis approach on 7 nursing professors and 21 nursing students who completed OSCE in 2019 at the Nursing and Midwifery School of Guilan University of Medical Sciences in northern Iran. The participants were selected using purposive sampling and the data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews. The collected data were analyzed using the content analysis approach proposed by Graneheim and Lundman. The credibility of the findings was checked using the criteria proposed by Guba and Lincoln.
Results: The data analysis revealed 3 main categories and 10 subcategories: OSCE as a highly efficient test(the requirement for reviewing the courses, student benchmarking, and randomly arranged questions), OSCE challenges (the low assessment ability of the test, the influence of the nursing instructor’s prior knowledge, and having little practical experience), the solutions to improve OSCE (diversification of evaluation techniques, shortening the distance between theory and practice, the effectiveness of the OSCE scores for graduation, and the application of stress reduction methods).
Conclusion: Despite some problems such as its stressful nature and its unknown format for students, OSCE seems to be effective for the clinical assessment of students before their graduation. Taking advantage of the professors’ and students’ perspectives can eliminate or reduce the problems and improve the positive points for planning and conducting the OSCE in the future.

Highlights

Pouya Nematzad (Google Scholar) (PubMed)

Parand Pourghane (Google Scholar) (PubMed)

Fereshteh Besharati (Google Scholar) (PubMed)

Seyed Mohammad Sadegh Mozafari (Google Scholar) (PubMed)

 

Keywords

  1. Al-Ghareeb AZ, Cooper SJ. Barriers and enablers to the use of high-fidelity patient simulation manikins in nurse education: an integrative review. Nurse Educ Today. 2016;36:281-6. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2015.08.005.
  2. Shin S, Park JH, Kim JH. Effectiveness of patient simulation in nursing education: meta-analysis. Nurse Educ Today. 2015;35(1):176-82. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2014.09.009.
  3. Salehi K, Salehi Z, Shakour M, Haghani F. A review on OSCE for clinical evaluation of nursing and midwifery students in Iran. Bimonthly of Education Strategies in Medical Sciences. 2018;11(2):73-82. doi: 10.29252/edcbmj.11.02.10. [Persian].
  4. Helminen K, Johnson M, Isoaho H, Turunen H, Tossavainen K. Final assessment of nursing students in clinical practice: perspectives of nursing teachers, students and mentors. J Clin Nurs. 2017;26(23-24):4795-803. doi: 10.1111/jocn.13835.
  5. Yekefallah L, Dehghankar L, Shafaee M, Mohamadi S, Moradi M. ICU students’ experiences of an effective clinical instructor: a phenomenological study. J Qual Res Health Sci. 2021;10(2):124-33. doi: 10.22062/jqr.2021.193588.0.
  6. Eskandari H, Soltani A, Andishmand V, Soltani A. Investigating the effective factors on effective learning in Far hangman on-duty training in students individual health domain (qualitative study). J Qual Res Health Sci. 2020;9(1):70-8. doi: 10.22062/ jqr.2020.90996.
  7. Shin H, Sok S, Hyun KS, Kim MJ. Competency and an active learning program in undergraduate nursing education. J Adv Nurs. 2015;71(3):591-8. doi: 10.1111/jan.12564.
  8. Rahiminia E, Ahmady S, Rahiminia H. Exploring undergraduate public health students’ experiences of internship courses: a qualitative study. J Qual Res Health Sci. 2021;10(1):312-20. doi: 10.22062/jqr.2021.91601.
  9. Adib-Hajbaghery M, Yazdani M. Effects of OSCE on learning, satisfaction and test anxiety of nursing students: a review study. Iran J Med Educ. 2018;18(0):70-83. [Persian].
  10. Hosseinabadi R, Gholami M, Mirzayee Sharifi S, Biranvand S, Anbari K, Tarverdian A. The comparison of perfomance and feedback of nursing students on objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) and traditional methods. Yafteh. 2019;20(4):51-62. [Persian].
  11. Baghaei R, Naderi J, Shams S, Feizi A, Rasouli d. Evaluation of the nursing students final exam multiple-choice questions in Urmia University of Medical Sciences. J Urmia Nurs Midwifery Fac. 2016;14(4):291-9. [Persian].
  12. Gholami H, Sargazi S, Nobakht M, Emadzadeh A. Reliability of second clinical skills OSCE in Mashhad by use of generalizability theory. Med J Mashhad Univ Med Sci. 2018;61(1):877-87. doi: 10.22038/mjms.2018.11200. [Persian].
  13. Harden RM, Stevenson M, Downie WW, Wilson GM. Assessment of clinical competence using objective structured examination. Br Med J. 1975;1(5955):447-51. doi: 10.1136/ bmj.1.5955.447.
  14. Rafati F, Pilevarzade M, Kiani A, Soltaninejad A. Designing, implementation and evaluation of OSCE to assess nursing students clinical competence in Jiroft faculty of nursing and midwifery. Nurs Midwifery J. 2020;18(2):118-28. [Persian ].
  15. Lyngå P, Masiello I, Karlgren K, Joelsson-Alm E. Experiences of using an OSCE protocol in clinical examinations of nursing students - a comparison of student and faculty assessments. Nurse Educ Pract. 2019;35:130-4. doi: 10.1016/j. nepr.2019.02.004.
  16. Kearney GP, Johnston JL, Hart ND, Corman MK, Gormley GJ. Protocol: exploring the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) using institutional ethnography. Int J Educ Res. 2018;88:42-7. doi: 10.1016/j.ijer.2018.01.002.
  17. Schleicher I, Leitner K, Juenger J, Moeltner A, Ruesseler M, Bender B, et al. Does quantity ensure quality? Standardized OSCE-stations for outcome-oriented evaluation of practical skills at different medical faculties. Ann Anat. 2017;212:55- 60. doi: 10.1016/j.aanat.2017.03.006.
  18. Aronowitz T, Aronowitz S, Mardin-Small J, Kim B. Using objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) as education in advanced practice registered nursing education. J Prof Nurs. 2017;33(2):119-25. doi: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2016.06.003.
  19. Meskell P, Burke E, Kropmans TJ, Byrne E, Setyonugroho W, Kennedy KM. Back to the future: an online OSCE Management Information System for nursing OSCEs. Nurse Educ Today. 2015;35(11):1091-6. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2015.06.010.
  20. Solà M, Pulpón AM, Morin V, Sancho R, Clèries X, Fabrellas N. Towards the implementation of OSCE in undergraduate nursing curriculum: a qualitative study. Nurse Educ Today. 2017;49:163-7. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2016.11.028.
  21. Kohansal M, Hosseini Z, Shamshiri M, Ajri-Khameslou M. Explaining the factors affecting the success of the nursing students in OSCE exam: a qualitative content analysis study. J Health Care. 2020;22(3):185-98. doi: 10.52547/jhc.22.3.185. [Persian].
  22. Daryazadeh S, Faghihi A, Jokar F, Yaghini O, Esmaeeli A. Medical students’ viewpoints about clinical competency exam: a qualitative study. Iran J Med Educ. 2017;17(0):100-9. [Persian].
  23. Sadeghi T, Shahabi M. Evaluation of nursing students using objective structured clinical examination: a strategy for assessing student’s competence. Stride Dev Med Educ. 2015;12(Suppl 1):228-36. [Persian].
  24. Noohi E, Motesadi M, Haghdoost A. Clinical teachers’ viewpoints towards objective structured clinical examination in Kerman University of Medical Science. Iran J Med Educ. 2008;8(1):113-20. [Persian].
  25. Bengtsson M. How to plan and perform a qualitative study using content analysis. NursingPlus Open. 2016;2:8-14. doi: 10.1016/j.npls.2016.01.001.
  26. Sadeghi T, Kazemi M. Nursing student’s viewpoints and experiences about clinical evaluation by 360-degree approach. J Qual Res Health Sci. 2016;5(3):273-82.
  27. Speziale HS, Streubert HJ, Carpenter DR. Qualitative Research in Nursing: Advancing the Humanistic Imperative. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2011.
  28. Brosnan M, Evans W, Brosnan E, Brown G. Implementing objective structured clinical skills evaluation (OSCE) in nurse registration programmes in a centre in Ireland: a utilisation focused evaluation. Nurse Educ Today. 2006;26(2):115-22. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2005.08.003.
  29. Azmoodeh F, Keshani F. Ghazvin dental students’ attitude towards the first objective-structured clinical examination in oral & maxillofacial pathology course. Educational Development of Judishapur. 2017;8(1):86-92. [Persian].
  30. Vejdani H, Mohsenipouya H, Azadi F, Fazeli S, Bashghare A, Jannati Y, et al. A study of clinical justice in the experiences of patients, nurses, and nursing students: a qualitative study. J Qual Res Health Sci. 2021;10(4):231-7. doi: 10.22062/ jqr.2021.193619.0.
  31. Raziani Y, Nazari A, Raziani S. Nursing students’ experiences with the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE): a qualitative study. Int J Afr Nurs Sci. 2022;16:100433. doi: 10.1016/j.ijans.2022.100433.
  32. Al Nazzawi AA. Dental students’ perception of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE): the Taibah University experience, Almadinah Almunawwarah, KSA. J Taibah Univ Med Sci. 2018;13(1):64-9. doi: 10.1016/j. jtumed.2017.09.002.
  33. Dehnoalian A, Zare Z, Tatari F. Evaluating nursing students, performance with on objective structured clinical examination. Res Med Educ. 2020;12(4):29-39. doi: 10.52547/rme.12.4.29. [Persian].
  34. Khosravi Khorashad A, Salari S, Baharvahdat H, Hejazi S, Mohammadzadeh Lari S, Salari M, et al. The assessment of undergraduate medical students’ satisfaction levels with the objective structured clinical examination. Iran Red Crescent Med J. 2014;16(8):e13088. doi: 10.5812/ircmj.13088.
  35. Faghihi A. The influential factors in the performance of medical students in the clinical competency exam: a qualitative study. Educ Res Med Sci. 2020;9(1):e104620. doi: 10.5812/erms.104620.
  36. Nouhi E, Maddah SSB, Abbaszadeh A. Collaborative learning experiences of nursing students in the clinical learning setting: a qualitative study. J Qual Res Health Sci. 2021;10(1):29-36. doi: 10.22062/jqr.2021.91600.
  37. Sheikh Abumasoudi R, Moghimian M, Hashemi M, Kashani F, Karimi T, Atashi V, et al. Comparison the effect of objective structured clinical evaluation (OSCE) with direct and indirect supervision on nursing student’s test anxiety. J Nurs Educ. 2015;4(2):1-8. [Persian].