The objective structured clinical examination for assessing nursing student clinical competency in a high-fidelity simulation

This paper aimed to evaluate students' clinical competencies through an objective standardized approach in a high-fidelity simulation. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) consisted of assessment, problem identification, nursing interventions, patient instruction. Simulated scenarios were designed by using the high-fidelity simulator and a student standardized patient (SSP) for enhancing the fidelity of interactions between "nurse"and "patient". The health assessment station included history inquire, physical and psycho-social assessment and professional attitude as well. The decision making station aimed to assess students' cognitive and critical thinking. The candidates analyzed the collected data, and propose the nursing care problems. In intervention station, the relevant nursing skills were implemented for the reasonable problems. The patient instruction station was designed to assess the knowledge application and interpersonal communication skills. All OSCE evaluation checklists were observational measurements. The inter-rater reliability was established for minimizing the possibility that the scores would vary from rater to rater.