Reference

Journal of Nursing Education January 2010 - Volume 49 Issue 1: 36-41 DOI: 10.3928/0148 483420090915-01 Zayyan M. Objective Structured Clinical Examination : The Assessment of Choice. Oman Med J 2011 Jul; 26(4):219222. DOI 10.5001/omj.2 011.55

Variables
Objective assessment, real world competence. Objective; Examination; Clinical skills. OSCE toward developing a reliable and valid tool for evaluating selected students clinical competencies. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) program was designed to assess students in a variety of health topics that may not be experienced during the assigned clinical rotation

Related Literature
A large part of the success of theOSCE in its original form was because it was found to be more reliable and valid than other more traditional forms of clinical assessment, such as long cases and viva voce examinations (Bartfay et al 2004; Brosnan et al 2006; Harden & Gleeson 1979). it makes sense to use OSCEs (i.e. many stations) because they have high validity (Newstead 1992), that is, both students and examiners see them as measuring skills relevant to clinical practice Appropriate Use of OSCEs: Four essential areas of revising competence will now be discussed in relation to OSCEs; i) Measuring context-

Findings/Results
Out of 25 participants 92% (n=23) were females and the rest were males. The average age of the students was 21 and most of the participants (72%) lived in Mashhad. The results of analysis the questionnaires of comparing the stressors in the two methods of traditional and OSCE were as follows; in OSCE students were more stressed than the traditional method. Also in OSCE because of more number of stations than the traditional methods students were more stressed. Most of the students considered time limitation as one of the important factors in producing stress in OSCE method. But at the same time they mentioned that OSCE method provides equal conditions for assessing all the students while in traditional method, as the tested technique is chosen through random, chance is also

Framework
With better planning in performing OSCE and familiarizing the students with the conditions and limitations of OSCE through practice during the term, stressors could be decreased logically. OSCE can be used as an appropriate method in evaluation basic nursing clinical skills because of various positive specifications such as; accuracy and fairness, encouraging students to active learning and increasing clinical competency and self-confidence of students for clinical practice. Therefore for improving the quality of holding this exam in faculties, people in charge had better care more about holding, providing

Methodology
This study was a comparative description which was conducted in Nursing and Midwifery School of Mashhad. Sampling was done through census. 25 students of the second term of nursing whose assessment of practical course of fundamental of nursing skills was done through traditional method in the first term and had passed the test, were assessed in the second term for the end-course evaluation of the practical course of Nursing Skills and Principles through OSCE method. The method of conducting the traditional method in the first term was as follows; students chose one of the trained techniques in the first term through random

Remarks
In our research problem, we would like to evaluate if OSCE really is a more reliable and valid form of clinical assessment for Nursing students, how it affect the competency of student in the clinical area, In short we would like to discern the effectiveness of OSCE in preparing the student nurse in the clinical area and address our questions that follows: How OSCE prepare nursing students in the clinical area? How students integrate theoretical knowledge through OSCE? What is the significance of OSCE in the area?

reliant competence: ii) Measuring Competence versus Measuring Performance : iii) Measuring Professional Behaviour: iv) Measuring Integration of Skills: Advantages and Disadvantages of OSCE......

involved, and according to the differences in the complexity and necessary efficiency for performing each technique the students expressed that this method does not provide equal conditions for assessing all the students. Most of the students considered OSCE more accurate than traditional method for assessing learning and skills of the students but expressed that it is more complicated than the traditional method. Encouraging students to active participation in learning is another advantage of OSCE, which was mentioned by most of the students. The comparison of the results of surveyed shows that the rate of stress while performing the techniques, stress originated from time limitation, confusion while taking the exam, complexity of the method of the exam, and encouraging the students to active participation in learning in OSCE method were

space and enough facilities.

and performed it while the instructor observed. It is worth mentioning that as all the techniques were not equally complex, the time of performing it changed according to previous background of the student in the instructors mind, the complexity of the technique, and etc. OSCE was performed as the assessment method of the trained skills in the second term which was as follows; first after determining the number and kind of station based on the trained techniques and available facilities (four ten-minute station of wound dressing, venous injection, Bladder catheterization and preparing medications), the examiners and students instructions and also the checklist of each station were provided.

significantly more than the traditional method (table 1). Although there is more stress in different aspects of OSCE, it seems that students are more satisfied with their achieved score in the traditional method. Also in another part of the questionnaire students opinions about different specifications and station of OSCE were examined.

Then settings of the station were planned. All the students did the techniques equally and at the same time and were assessed by the observer on the basis of the checklist. After the conduction of the exam, the researchermade questionnaire was filled by the students for studying and comparing the stressors. This questionnaire was studied by some nursing professors and its content validity was confirmed, and its reliability was also confirmed through testretest method ( r=0.75)