OSCEs are designed to assess practice competence . They are widely used in medicine and in many allied health professional courses , but are not so commonly used in occupational therapy programmes . ”
OSCEs are designed to assess practice competence . They are widely used in medicine and in many allied health professional courses , but are not so commonly used in occupational therapy programmes . ”
assessment . This is in the form of a written piece or a presentation .
Following revalidation of the LSBU BSc occupational therapy course in September 2022 , the assessment linked to Practice Placement One was changed from a 3,000-word essay about the occupational therapy process on placement , to a practical OSCE assessment .
The OSCE required the students to carry out a 15-minute occupational therapy initial interview with an actor playing the role of a patient . The actors came from the Encore Theatre Company .
The Encore Theatre Company is an organisation for actors who are 60 years and over . They are in residence within the Institute of Health and Social Care at LSBU . Encore contributes to many aspects of the allied health courses , including student admissions interviews and playing the role of patient case studies . The Encore actors provided an invaluable addition to the OSCE assessments .
Following the 15-minute initial interview , the marker asked the student six questions about their initial interview and the occupational therapy process . The time for the questions was 10 minutes . The OCSE assessment was graded pass or fail . The aims of the OSCE are to :
• Assess the student ’ s understanding of the occupational therapy process .
• Enable the student to develop a professional identity as an occupational therapy student and develop appreciation of service user ’ s experiences .
• Assess the student ’ s ability to engage in and work within the boundaries of a professional relationship with a service user and consider their own strengths and areas for development .
• Assess the student ’ s ability to effectively conduct an occupational therapy initial interview as part of the occupational therapy process .
• Assess the student ’ s therapeutic use of self and ascertain if they have an acceptable level of therapeutic communication skills when interviewing a patient .
• Enable the student to experience and develop an introductory understanding of personcentred care and assess if they can adopt a person-centred approach when working with a patient .
Developing the assessment
There were five stages in the year one OSCE development . In stage one , a literature search was conducted about OSCE assessments on health care courses , with a particular focus on occupational therapy .
In stage two , there was extensive discussion with LSBU colleagues about the structure of the OSCE assessments and how they were conducted . OSCE assessments are used in nursing and allied health professional courses at LSBU . The student experience of the OSCE assessments was also discussed at length .
Stage three saw the first version of the occupational therapy OSCE assessment drafted and shared with experienced LSBU occupational therapy tutors and the BSc external examiner , who was familiar with the courses .
In stage four , guidance was provided to the occupational therapy tutors who would be marking the OSCE assessments .
And for stage five , there was a meeting with the Encore actors to discuss the nature of the assessment and how the case studies needed to be played .
The OSCE case studies were developed following guidance from practitioners . Two cases were developed : one was played by a female actor , who had a total hip replacement with the setting being on an acute medical ward ; the other was played by a male actor who had experienced depression and bereavement during lockdown .
The students had access to both cases studies from the beginning of the module , but did not know which case they would be interviewing until the start of the assessment .
The LSBU occupational therapy OSCE assessments were first delivered in Spring 2023 , for the first year BSc full-time , part-time and apprentice courses . Students were only able to partake in the OSCE assessment if they had started their first practice placement .
Evaluation
The OSCE assessments were evaluated by the students , occupational therapy tutors and the Encore actors . All groups who completed the
30 OTnews May 2024