Student Satisfaction and Performance with Standardized Patients in an Objective Structured Clinical Examination
Jordan Adrian, SPT, Caleb Barnett, SPT, Andrea Bush, SPT, Nicole DeBrie, SPT; Marcie C. Swift, PT, PhD, FAAOMPT
Purpose: A well-conceived Standardized Patient (SP) program can increase the effectiveness of SPs portrayal of actual patients in Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs).The purpose of this study is 1) to compare student satisfaction of an OSCE with modifications made to enhance the OSCE experience and 2) to examine student satisfaction in an OSCE with SP’s who have minimal compared to extensive training. Subjects: A total of 89 doctoral physical therapist students from two graduating classes at Rockhurst University were recruited to participate in this study. Methods and Materials: The OSCE investigated in this study was developed to test doctoral physical therapist students’ cognitive and psychomotor skills used in clinical practice. A modification made to the OSCE given to Class 2015 was the amount of training the SPs received to portray the role of the patient for the exam. During the exam, all students in the class of 2014 and 32 students in the class of 2015 interacted with minimally trained SPs while 14 of the students in the Class of 2015 interacted with SPs who had extensive training. Upon completion of the OSCE, each student completed a 5-Likert-scale survey on satisfaction with the OSCE experience. Independent t-tests were used to analyze baseline comparison of GPA and prior clinical experience between the two classes. An Independent t-test was used to compare performance scores between the two classes. Mann Whitney tests were used to evaluate the difference in satisfaction between Class 2014 and Class 2015 and between minimal and extensive training of SPs. The dependent variables were performance scores and student satisfaction scores with the OSCE. All data were analyzed using SPSS Version 21.0 for Windows. Results: Baseline comparisons indicated there was no significant difference in GPA and prior clinical experience before taking the OSCE between Class 2014 and Class 2015. Independent t-test indicated a significant difference in the performance scores between Class 2014 and Class 2015 (p=0.019), with the Class of 2014 scoring higher on the OSCE. The Mann Whitney test indicated the Class of 2015 had higher total satisfaction with their SP interaction during their OSCE experience. Further analysis of SP satisfaction using the Mann Whitney test indicated no difference in satisfaction and performance scores with a minimally trained SP compared to an extensively trained SP in the Class 2015. Conclusion: Modifying the training time of SPs for their role in the OSCE did not reveal increase satisfaction and performance scores. However, the pilot data collected in this study demonstrated a trend in higher satisfaction and performance scores in the 12 students who interacted with SPs who were extensively trained. This study supports continued research to determine if increasing training time of SPs is necessary in an SP program.