Effects of Rater's Presence in OSCE Station on Examinee's Scores and Performance

Bang, Jae Beum

Abstract

PURPOSE
It is uncertain whether the rater's presence during administration of the objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) has any impact on examinee performance. To clarify this issue, the effects of a rater's presence during testing on OSCE score and examinee responses were analyzed. METHODS: The OSCE comprised 24 stations of 12 duplicated cases. Twenty-eight of 83 fourth-year medical students were placed in four rater-absent stations (pediatrics, 2 stations; internal medicine, 2 stations). The scores of the rater-absent group were assessed after review of recorded videotapes. We obtained student responses on the rater's presence by means of a questionnaire. Statistical analysis (t-test) was performed using SPSS 14.0. RESULTS: The scores of the rater-absent group compared with the rater-present group were 78.57+/-16.27 vs. 70.55+/-19.57 (p=0.066) for pediatrics, 66.07+/-14.74 vs. 64.36+/-14.88 (p=0.621) for internal medicine, and 67.75+/-5.43 vs. 69.13+/-4.85 (p=0.099) for total score, respectively. Subjects in the rater-absent group felt that they were in a real-life clinical situation (p=0.013) and concentrated better (p=0.006), and more students requested to take the OSCE without a rater in the station (p=0.000) than those in rater-present group. CONCLUSION: Although there was no significant difference in OSCE scores between the rater-absent and rater-present examinee groups, subjects at rater-absent stations felt more of a real clinical situation and could concentrate more effectively than those at rater-present stations. To this end, videotaped OSCE assessments should be considered to increase the validity of the examination.