PLoS ONE (Jan 2023)

Early formative objective structured clinical examinations for students in the pre-clinical years of medical education: A non-randomized controlled prospective pilot study.

  • Naïm Ouldali,
  • Enora Le Roux,
  • Albert Faye,
  • Claire Leblanc,
  • François Angoulvant,
  • Diane Korb,
  • Clémence Delcour,
  • Caroline Caula,
  • Delphine Wohrer,
  • Alexis Rybak,
  • Manon Delafoy,
  • Claire Carrié,
  • Marion Strullu,
  • Mehdi Oualha,
  • Romain Levy,
  • Camille Mimoun,
  • Lucie Griffon,
  • Alexandre Nuzzo,
  • Clara Eyraud,
  • Michael Levy,
  • Pierre Ellul

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0294022
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 18, no. 12
p. e0294022

Abstract

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BackgroundThe value of formative objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) during the pre-clinical years of medical education remains unclear. We aimed to assess the effectiveness of a formative OSCE program for medical students in their pre-clinical years on subsequent performance in summative OSCE.MethodsWe conducted a non-randomized controlled prospective pilot study that included all medical students from the last year of the pre-clinical cycle of the Université Paris-Cité Medical School, France, in 2021. The intervention group received the formative OSCE program, which consisted of four OSCE sessions, followed by debriefing and feedback, whereas the control group received the standard teaching program. The main objective of this formative OSCE program was to develop skills in taking a structured medical history and communication. All participants took a final summative OSCE. The primary endpoint was the summative OSCE mark in each group. A questionnaire was also administered to the intervention-group students to collect their feedback. A qualitative analysis, using a convenience sample, was conducted by gathering data pertaining to the process through on-site participative observation of the formative OSCE program.ResultsTwenty students were included in the intervention group; 776 in the control group. We observed a significant improvement with each successive formative OSCE session in communication skills and in taking a structured medical history (pConclusionOur findings suggest that an early formative OSCE program is suitable for the pre-clinical years of medical education and is associated with improved student performance in domains targeted by the program.