J Educ Eval Health Prof.
2018;15:17. 10.3352/jeehp.2018.15.17.
Examiner seniority and experience are associated with bias when scoring communication, but not examination, skills in objective structured clinical examinations in Australia
- Affiliations
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- 1Clinical Skills Teaching Unit, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney, Australia.
- 2University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
- 3Prince of Wales Clinical School, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.
- 4Office of Medical Education, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia. b.shulruf@unsw.edu.au
- 5Centre for Medical and Health Sciences Education, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand.
- KMID: 2439273
- DOI: http://doi.org/10.3352/jeehp.2018.15.17
Abstract
- PURPOSE
The biases that may influence objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) scoring are well understood, and recent research has attempted to establish the magnitude of their impact. However, the influence of examiner experience, clinical seniority, and occupation on communication and physical examination scores in OSCEs has not yet been clearly established.
METHODS
We compared the mean scores awarded for generic and clinical communication and physical examination skills in 2 undergraduate medicine OSCEs in relation to examiner characteristics (gender, examining experience, occupation, seniority, and speciality). The statistical significance of the differences was calculated using the 2-tailed independent t-test and analysis of variance.
RESULTS
Five hundred and seventeen students were examined by 237 examiners at the University of New South Wales in 2014 and 2016. Examiner gender, occupation (academic, clinician, or clinical tutor), and job type (specialist or generalist) did not significantly impact scores. Junior doctors gave consistently higher scores than senior doctors in all domains, and this difference was statistically significant for generic and clinical communication scores. Examiner experience was significantly inversely correlated with generic communication scores.
CONCLUSION
We suggest that the assessment of examination skills may be less susceptible to bias because this process is fairly prescriptive, affording greater scoring objectivity. We recommend training to define the marking criteria, teaching curriculum, and expected level of performance in communication skills to reduce bias in OSCE assessment.
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