Analysis of students, achievement rate and contents of assessment for objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) attempted at the faculty of pharmaceutical sciences, Showa University]

The aim of this study was to analyze students, achievement rate and contents of assessment judged by instructors in objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) attempted at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, Showa University. The OSCE was carried out for fourth-year students in May 28, 2005. In this trial, there were two stations, i.e., counting/measurement dispensing and subsequent audit of dispensed drugs, and 218 students and 31 instructors (as evaluators) participated. We developed a checklist to test students attitudes and skills (two stages) and overall evaluation (five stages). Each student was evaluated by two instructors. Examination time was 8 minutes for drug dispensing, and 4 minuets for the audit of dispensed drug. After the OSCE trial, we analyzed validity of examination time, contents of assessment, and differences in scores between different evaluators. More than half of the students could not finish the examination within the limit of time for dispensing the liquid and cream and audit for dispensed powder. The number of items that 60 % of the students achieved was 48 (82.8 %). Moreover, 20 % of the assessment items did not agree among the evaluators with a disagreement rate of 20% or more. Thus, we distinguished between the items based on the extent of disagreement rates. It was suggested that most of the students achieved such a level to actually perform clinical training in pharmacies. From these results, it is necessary to set up an assignment to finish the within the time limit to extent the time limit depending upon examination contents, to standardize the evaluation to increase the agreement rate among evaluators, and to more clearly identify assessment criteria.