Effect of Detailed OSCE Score Reporting on Learning and Anxiety in Medical School

Abstract

Introduction There is growing literature on increasing feedback from Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) and one approach is a score report. The purpose of this study was to implement and evaluate a score report for a second and fourth-year medical school OSCE. Methods We developed an electronic OSCE score report that displayed comments and performance by domain within and across stations (checklist items and rating scales were tagged to each domain). Our initial pilot released the score report after pass/fail decisions but subsequent iterations released the score report the same day as the exam. Our evaluation approach included both student surveys and focus groups. Results Students felt the OSCE score report was accurate, identified strengths and weaknesses, and would likely cause them to take future action, with second-year students more likely to act on the report than fourth year students. The thematic analysis revealed barriers and enablers to utilizing feedback as well as the power of the score report to reduce anxiety. Conclusions Our OSCE score report was simple to develop and implement the same day as an OSCE with an overall positive response from students with respect to accuracy and ability to use the information for future learning.