Objective Structured Clinical Evaluation (OSCE)- a Reliable Clinical Performance Evaluation Strategy in Mental Health Nursing

Adaptation of OSCE as an evaluation strategy in nursing education in India is grossly lacking and the present study aimed to test its reliability by comparing with a selected traditional clinical performance evaluation strategy commonly in practice among nursing institutions.

Consented subjects (n=30) were randomly assigned to undergo two-stage clinical performance evaluation using OSCE and traditional clinical performance evaluation method, based on structured performance evaluation formats and viva voce. Traditional clinical performance evaluation was performed by two independent examiners; internal and external examiner. Reliability was defined as a non significant (p>0.05) difference in the overall Mean clinical performance evaluation scores between its different subject measurements. Data was pooled and was analyzed using SPSS v16.

All study subjects were females and were taken from 3^rd year BSc Nursing class. Overall Mean OSCE scores show no significant (p>0.05) difference between its selected subject measurements, whereas the overall Mean traditional clinical performance evaluation scores were significantly (p<0.05) differ between its selected subjects measurements thus the reliability of the OSCE was established when compared to traditional clinical performance evaluation strategy.

The study recommended in incorporating more objective evaluation strategies such as OSCE in nursing education that could enhance the reliability of the evaluation and help the nurse educators to provide a valid feedback and guidance to their students.