Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) to

Assess Community Health Competencies

The goal of this proposal is to develop an Objective Structured Clinical Exam (OSCE) to assess Family and Community Medicine clerkship students' competency to provide community responsive care with a focus on the impact of cultural beliefs, values and norms, socioeconomic status (SES), and health literacy on the the patient encounter and health status.  The OSCE is an innovative and effective method to examine behavioral skills of medical students and practitioners in a variety of medical encounter situations.

Partners:

• Center for Healthy Communities, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin
• S.E.T. Ministry, Inc
• Columbia St. Mary's Hospital, Parish Nurses

Objectives of the Program:

• To develop three OSCE cases focusing on cultural competency, socioeconomic status, and health literacy within the context of three different clinical scenarios commonly seen in Family Medicine
• To pilot test the Community Health OSCE with a sample of third year medical students enrolled in the Family and Community Medicine clerkship
• To use expert raters to evaluate the student performance on the OSCEs in order to ensure the inter-rater reliability and effectiveness of the OSCE as an assessment instrument
• To modify and strengthen the OSCE based on the review of the Standardized Patients and expert raters and implement the OSCE in the Family and Community Medicine Clerkship

Project Period:

• July 1, 2006 - June 30, 2008

Accomplishments to Date:

• Determined the Community Health competencies that were to be evaluated
• Developed three OSCE stations to portray the impact of cultural issues, socioeconomic status, and inadequate health literacy on clinical care
• Developed checklist evaluation for Standardized Patients
• Piloted the OSCEs with a sample of 30 Family and Community Medicine clerkship students
• Analyzed results from Standardized Patients' checklists
• Reviewed and coded the videotapes of the OSCEs
• Analyzed results from Standardized Patients' checklists and Community Health experts to determine inter-rater reliability of rating instrument

Current Activities:

• Modify/revise OSCE stations based on evaluation results
• Modify/revise Standardized Patients' assessment instrument based on evaluation results
• Implement the OSCE in the Family and Community Medicine third year clerkship
• Disseminate results

Funding Source:

• Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Program