Description of observer feedback in an objective structured clinical examination and effects on examinees

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Abstract
In an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) evaluating undergraduate medical students’ physical diagnosis skills, all examinees received immediate performance feedback from faculty observers at the completion of each station. To describe the feedback and to evaluate its effect on examinee performance, a sample of 90 observer‐examinee encounters with faculty observers representing five different OSCE tasks were videotaped during the OSCE. Types of feedback during these encounters were analyzed using a behavior tally sheet. The data show that observer feedback most often included summative positive and specific negative statements and that observers’ specific statements were closely related to the checklists used by observers to evaluate examinees’ performance. Statistically significant correlations exist between examinee scores and the quantity of summative positive statements, specific positive statements, and checklist‐related omission statements given to each examinee. Post‐OSCE survey responses from examinees indicate considerable positive effects from feedback during the OSCE.